A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study In Female Migraineurs Without Aura

Objective:Two resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs-fMRI)methods,amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation(ALFF)and functional connectivity(FC),were used to probe into brain functional differences in female migraineurs without aura between attacks under the resting-state,we can further understand the characteristics of changes in the strength of spontaneous brain activity and brain function network connections of neurons in the resting state,at the same time analyze the correlation with clinical information so as to supply several reference for clinical diagnosis and therapy in female migraineurs without aura.Method:Rs-fMRI scans were performed on 21 female migraineurs without aura(MWoA)between attacks and matched healthy controls(HC)with Siemens 3.0T MRI.The obtained images were pre-processed,post-processed and analyzed based on the SPM12 and RESTplus V1.3 toolkits of MATLAB 2014a platform.Firstly,the ALFF was calculated and in the meantime the brain region differences between the MWoA and HC group were compared.Next,the region of interest(ROI)was extracted from the left insula where has significant functional discrepancy in ALFF,and discrepancies in FC between ROI and other voxels of the whole brain were analyzed by seed point-based FC.Finally,the ALFF values of brain regions with intergroup differences in the MWoA group were extracted and also explored whether there were correlations with visual analog scale(VAS),length of disease,self-rating anxiety scale(SAS)and self-rating depression scale(SDS)scores.Result:(1)Compared to the HC group,the brain areas with significantly higher ALFF values in the MWoA group were the right angular gyrus,left supramarginal gyrus,left middle occipital gyrus and left insula;on the contrary,left superior temporal gyrus,right posterior cerebellar lobe,right middle frontal gyrus and right postcentral gyrus had reduced ALFF values(P<0.05).(2)Taking the left insula as the ROI,the brain regions with enhanced functional connectivity in the MWoA group compared with the HC group were the left middle frontal gyrus,left supramarginal gyrus,right supramarginal gyrus and right supplementary motor cortex;the brain regions with reduced functional connectivity were the right middle occipital gyrus and left precentral gyrus(P<0.05).(3)ALFF values in the left insula of the MWoA group were inversely correlated with the course of disease(r=-0.453,P<0.05);ALFF values in the right corner gyrus were positively correlated with the length of illness(r=0.475,P<0.05);there was a negative linear relationship between SAS score and ALFF value of the left occipital mid-gyrus in the MWoA group(r=-0.447,P<0.05);and no correlation was found between ALFF values of another differential brain regions and clinical indicators.Conclusion:Female migraineurs without aura show abnormalities in spontaneous neuronal activity and functional networks in several brain regions,and these differential regions are mostly associated with pain and emotion perception,regulation and modification of processing,involving the brain’s adaptation to migraine and self-regulation of related emotions.ALFF values in the left insula of the MWoA group were negatively correlated with disease duration,suggesting sustained damage may be caused by prolonged spontaneous neuronal activity in female migraineurs without aura.The positive correlation between ALFF value of the right angular gyrus and the duration of the disease reflects the functional dysfunction in perception of headaches and visual information conversion in female migraineurs without aura,which is likely to be adaptive changes of recurrent attacks of migraine without aura.ALFF values in the left middle occipital gyrus were negatively correlated with SAS scores,which is expected to provide early diagnostic information for migraine patients with anxiety,leading to early implementation of clinical intervention.