Interhemispheric Attentional Functioning in Classic Migraine Subjects During Paroxysmal and Interparoxysmal Phases

Abstract

SYNOPSIS To investigate whether recurrent neurological migraine prodromes may cause deterioration of higher brain functions, classic migraine patients with prodromes always on the same side ware submitted versus controls to a lateralized attentional task (Posner's test) at a short time interval from the headache attack (paroxysmal phase) and at a longer interval during the headache‐free period (interparoxysmal phase). The results indicate that classic migraine subjects showed no significant changes of interhemispheric attentional processing and interhemispheric balance. Some other findings which did not regard interhemispheric balance are discussed.

Migraine: What Imaging Reveals

“…These findings are corroborated by neuropsychological studies that show decreased performance on measures of attention, verbal learning, and memory during the attack [60,61] as well as between attacks [62,63]. However, other studies have failed to identify neuropsychological function deficits in migraineurs [30,64,65].…”

Color Vision but not Visual Attention Is Altered in Migraine

“…Other studies have used neuropsychological test batteries to assess general cognitive functioning in migraine 8–11 . There has been, however, remarkably little research on behavioral measures of cognition and attention, with the exception of visual search 12–15 and cueing 16,17 . These techniques can be used to assess preattentive, or automatic, visual processes and attentive mechanisms, with limited capacity, which enhance the processing of particular parts of the visual display (for a review see Pashler et al 18 ).…”

“…The results from both the electrophysiological and behavioral research have been taken as evidence for diverse abnormalities in migraine, such as, cortical hyperexcitability, 1,12 sustained attention, 17 heightened arousal, 1,2,6,17 or heightened sensory sensitivity, 3,12 each of which may limit attentional resources. More specifically, it has been proposed that the ability to focus, or to engage and disengage, attention is impaired in migraine 15,16 . Due to possible limitations in some of the behavioral studies, this study was conducted to examine preattentive and attentive mechanisms in migraine using the visual search paradigm.…”

“…[8][9][10][11] There has been, however, remarkably little research on behavioral measures of cognition and attention, with the exception of visual search [12][13][14][15] and cueing. 16,17 These techniques can be used to assess April 2006 preattentive, or automatic, visual processes and attentive mechanisms, with limited capacity, which enhance the processing of particular parts of the visual display (for a review see Pashler et al 18 ). The results from both the electrophysiological and behavioral research have been taken as evidence for diverse abnormalities in migraine, such as, cortical hyperexcitability, 1,12 sustained attention, 17 heightened arousal, 1,2,6,17 or heightened sensory sensitivity, 3,12 each of which may limit attentional resources.…”

“…More specifically, it has been proposed that the ability to focus, or to engage and disengage, attention is impaired in migraine. 15,16 Due to possible limitations in some of the behavioral studies, this study was conducted to examine preattentive and attentive mechanisms in migraine using the visual search paradigm.…”