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Published in: Current Pain and Headache Reports 4/2022

01-04-2022 | Migraine | Chronic Daily Headache (SJ Wang and S Chen, Section Editors)

Resting State Electrophysiological Cortical Activity: A Brain Signature Candidate for Patients with Migraine

Authors: Li-Ling Hope Pan, Fu-Jung Hsiao, Wei-Ta Chen, Shuu-Jiun Wang

Published in: Current Pain and Headache Reports | Issue 4/2022

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Studies on event-related evoked potentials have indicated that altered cortical processing of sensory stimuli is associated with migraine. However, the results depend on the experimental method and patients. Electrophysiology of resting state cortical activity has revealed compelling results regarding the pathophysiology of migraine. This review summarized the available information related to patients with episodic and chronic migraine to determine whether certain features can be used as signatures for migraine.

Recent Findings

A recent study examined differences in resting state functional connectivity among the pain-related regions and revealed that beta connectivity was attenuated in migraine and that altered connectivity in the anterior cingulate cortex was linked to migraine chronification. These findings suggested that chronification leads to neuroplasticity in the pain areas of higher-level processing rather than in areas involved in basic sensory discrimination (i.e., primary and secondary somatosensory areas). Another study discovered that the betweenness centrality of delta band in right precuneus was significantly lower in those with longer history of migraine. Electroencephalogram may also predict the treatment outcomes in patients with chronic migraine that those with lower pre-treatment occipital alpha power tend to show greater reduction in headache frequency.

Summary

Studies on resting state activity have yielded convincing findings regarding aberrant oscillatory power and functional connectivity in relation to migraine, thus contributing to identifying brain signatures for migraine. The role of such assessment in precision medicine should be further investigated.
Literature
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Metadata
Title
Resting State Electrophysiological Cortical Activity: A Brain Signature Candidate for Patients with Migraine
Authors
Li-Ling Hope Pan
Fu-Jung Hsiao
Wei-Ta Chen
Shuu-Jiun Wang
Publication date
01-04-2022
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Current Pain and Headache Reports / Issue 4/2022
Print ISSN: 1531-3433
Electronic ISSN: 1534-3081
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-022-01030-0

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