Visual spatial attention in migraine sufferers in postictal and interictal phases: An event-related potential study.

Nine migrainers with (MWA; aged 18-36 yrs) and 10 without (MWOA; aged 21-36 yrs) aura as well as 10 controls (aged 19-28 yrs) from a female university were measured twice with an interval of 7 days. The first session of recordings and tests for migraineurs was held about 7 hours after a migraine attack. The authors hypothesized that electrophysiological changes in the posterior cerebral cortex related to visual spatial attention are influenced by the level of arousal in migraineurs with aura, and that this varies over the course of time. Event related potentials related to the active visual attention task manifested significant differences between controls and both types of migraine sufferers for the N200, suggesting a common pathophysiological mechanism for migraineurs. Furthermore, MWOAs showed a significant enhancement for the N200 at the second session, indicating the relevance of time of measurement within migraine studies. Finally, MWAs showed significantly enhanced P240 and P300 components at central and parietal cortical sites compared to MWOAs and controls, which seemed to be maintained over both sessions and could be indicative of increased noradrenergic activity in MWAs.