Spatial Heterogeneity of Cortical Excitability in Migraine Revealed by Multifrequency Neuromagnetic Signals

Abstract

To investigate the spatial heterogeneity of cortical excitability in adolescents with migraine, magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings at a sampling rate of 6000 Hz were obtained from 35 adolescents with an acute migraine and 35 age- and gender-matched healthy controls during an auditory-motor task. Neuromagnetic activation from low- to high-frequency ranges (5–1,000 Hz) was measured at both sensor and source levels. The heterogeneity of cortical excitability was quantified within each functional modality (auditory vs. motor) and hemispherical lateralization. MEG data showed that high-frequency, not low-frequency neuromagnetic signals, revealed heterogeneous cortical activation in migraine subjects as compared with controls (p < 0.001). The alteration of the heterogeneity of cortical excitability in migraine was independent of age and gender. The degree of the neuromagnetic heterogeneity of cortical activation was significantly correlated with headache frequency (r=0.71, p < 0.005). The alteration of cortical excitability in migraine is spatially heterogeneous and frequency dependent, which has not previously been reported. The finding may be critical for developing spatially targeted therapeutic strategies for normalizing cortical excitability with the purpose of reducing headache attacks. Perspective This article presents a new approach to quantitatively measuring the spatial heterogeneity of cortical excitability in adolescents with migraine using MEG signals in a frequency range of 5–1000 Hz. The characteristics of the location and degree of cortical excitability may be critical for spatially targeted treatment for migraine.

Abnormality of visual neuromagnetic activation in female migraineurs without aura between attacks

“…Neuromagnetic signals above 1000 Hz were also excluded from this study because in our pre-analysis these were not captured at the very-high-frequency range (>1000 Hz). The selection of the frequency ranges was based on our previous findings [29, 31, 32].…”

IFCN-endorsed practical guidelines for clinical magnetoencephalography (MEG)

“…Pain-evoked magnetic fields should be suitable for assessing opercular–insular pain syndrome resulting from para-sylvian lesions ( Garcia-Larrea et al, 2010 ) but, to our knowledge, no such study is hitherto available. Numerous MEG studies, based on source-space approaches, show changes in resting-state activity and functional connectivity in patients suffering from various types of chronic pain including migraine ( Li et al, 2016 , Xiang et al, 2016 ), menstrual pain ( Kuo et al, 2017 ), and fibromyalgia ( Lim et al, 2016 , Hsiao et al, 2017 ). Deciphering whether these MEG markers might be useful to guide non-pharmacological treatments of chronic pain remains to be solved in the future.…”

GABA and glutamate in pediatric migraine

“…For example, the sensorimotor cortex of migraineurs shows enhanced responses to sensory stimuli, and the degree of enhancement correlates with headache frequency. 50 Similarly, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies involving adults with migraine indicate visual cortex hyperexcitability. 5 …”