Functional Abnormalities In Migraine With Aura Patients: A Resting-state FMRI Study

Objective::Previous image studies had discovered that there werestructural and task-related functional changes in the brain of migraine patientswithout aura. For a better understanding of the migraine mechanism, in thisstudy, resting-state fMRI was utilized to probe the regional spontaneous brainactivities and analyze the resting-state abnormalities in migraine patients withaura.Methods::7interictal migraine patients with aura and7healthyvolunteers with age, education and gender matched received the scanning ofthe resting-state fMRI Via DPARSFA2.2software, each amplitude oflow-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) was obtained, then two sample t-test wasmade to find the brain areas with significant differentia of ALFF values. Thebrain areas were defined as regions of interest(ROI). ROI-based functionalconnectivities (FC) were analyzed to explore some possible abnormalities.Results::1The ALFF values of brain areas in both groups were showed in picture1and picture2.The brain areas which had a significant increase in ALFFvalues in both groups were anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus,inferior parietal lobule, medial prefrontal cortex, insular lobe and so on. Allthese areas belonged to default mode network.2In comparison with healthy subjects, there was a significant increase inALFF values of the bilateral superior frontal gyrus.(P <0.05); In comparisonwith healthy subjects, there was a significant increase in ALFF values of theleft orbitofrontal cortex, calcarine cortex and cuneus.(P <0.05).In comparisonwith healthy subjects, there was a significant increase in T values of thepatients and the area which had the maximum values were located at the leftsuperior frontal gyrus. 3In comparison with healthy subjects, there was a signifcant decrease inALFF values of the left middle temporal gyrus（P<0.05）; In comparison withhealthy subjects, there was a significant decrease in ALFF values of the leftinferior temporal gyrus（P<0.05）;In comparison with healthy subjects, therewas a significant decrease in ALFF values of the left caudate nucleu（sP<0.05）;In comparison with healthy subjects, there was a signifcant decrease in ALFFvalues of the bilateral thalamus（P<0.05）; In comparison with healthysubjects, there was a significant decrease in ALFF values of the rightpremotor cortex（P<0.05）.In comparison with healthy subjects, there was asignificant decrease in T values of the patients and the area which had theminimum values were located at the left middle temporal gyrus.4In comparison with healthy subjects, there were some functionalconnection changes between cerebellum, insular lobe, frontal lobe, cingulategyrus,supramarginal gyrus, brainstem and associated brain areas in patientsubjects.To be concrete, In comparison with healthy subjects there weredecreased FC between the left cerebellum, the right insular lobe, thebrainstem and the left superior frontal gyrus. There were increased FCbetween the right orbitofrontal cortex, the left middle frontal gyrus, thebilateral anterior cingulated cortex, the right supramarginal gyrus and theleft superior frontal.Conclusions:In migraine with aura patients during interictal period, theresting-state abnormalities of these regions may be associated with functionalimpairments in pain processing, which may help to understand thepathogenesis of migraine with aura.