Coupling between Visual Evoked Cerebral Blood Flow Velocity Responses and Visual Evoked Potentials in Migraneurs

Abstract

Neurovascular coupling may be altered in migraneurs. Therefore, visual evoked potentials (VEP) and visually evoked cerebral blood flow velocity responses (VEFR) were simultaneously recorded in 30 healthy controls and 30 migraneurs interictally using a checkerboard stimulus with visual contrasts of 1%, 10% and 100%. The VEFR were measured in the posterior cerebral artery using transcranial Doppler and VEP were recorded from occipital leads. We found an increase in VEFR and VEP in both the healthy and migraneur groups (P < 0.01). VEFR were significantly higher in migraneurs (P < 0.01), while VEP did not significantly differ between the groups (P > 0.05). Regression showed a significant association between VEP and VEFR in both healthy controls (r = 0.66, P < 0.01) and migraneurs (r = 0.63, P < 0.01). The regression coefficient of migraneurs (b = 0.88, SE = 0.08) was significantly higher than that of healthy controls (b = 0.55, SE = 0.07) (P = 0.04). We conclude that neurovascular coupling is increased in migraneurs interictally.

A transcranial doppler study in interictal migraine and tension‐type headache

“…2,12,27 Other investigators have proposed other pathophysiologic hypotheses, including hypersensitivity or lack of habituation to vasoconstrictor as well as vasodilator stimuli in migraine patients. 12,28,29 The contradictory results of CR to hypercapnia in migraine can be explained by the use of different methodologies. 12 We used the same time (4 seconds) after breath-holding as Silvestrini et al…”

Intact neurovascular coupling during executive function in migraine without aura: Interictal near-infrared spectroscopy study

“…Contrast vectors were used to find the differences in haemodynamic responses among different trial types and the corresponding statistical significances of these estimates were calculated. The leftmost detectors (1)(2)(3)(4) were denoted as the left lateral detectors and the rightmost detectors (13)(14)(15)(16) were denoted as right lateral detectors. Then for each subject among these detectors those that exhibited statistically significant responses for the given contrast were determined.…”

Self-regulation of Cerebral Blood Flow by Means of Transcranial Doppler Sonography Biofeedback

“…In the latter case, one should not overlook the fact that the temporal arteries constitute extracranial vessels supplying for instance the face and the pericranium, and that they are not directly involved in the pathogenesis. On the other hand, blood flow velocities in the basal cerebral arteries, which are insonated by TCD, vary according to diameter changes of the intracranial arterioles and capillaries, where the actual pathological processes occur [30,31]. TCD-based biofeedback may counteract the excessive dilation of cerebral resistance vessels, thereby directly intervening in these processes.…”

“…29). Furthermore, its genesis relates to vascular dysregulation particularly increased vasomotor reactivity and impaired cerebral autoregulation [30,31]. As to the pathogenesis of migraine, it is assumed that both cortical sensitization and aberrant cerebrovascular control during the interictal interval are involved in triggering the occurrence of headaches [32,33].…”