Resting-state Functional MRI Study Of Function Connectivity In Patients With Migraine Without Aura

Purpose:To explore the changes of functional connectivity density(FCD)and seed-based functional connectivity(FC)in patients with migraine without aura(MWoA),including chronic migraine(CM)and episodic migraine(EM)patients,using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs-fMRI).Methods:Rs-fMRI images and high resolution TiWI of 56 MWoA patients(EM 39,CM 17)and 35 matched healthy controls(HC)were collected.The patients were admitted to the department of neurology of the first affiliated hospital of soochow university for the first time from December 2016 to September 2017.After date preprocessing with professional software and modeling calculation,the changes in FCD,including local functional connectivity density(LFCD)and long-range connectivity density(longFCD),and changes in FC of right hippocampus were compared among the three groups.Results:1.FCD differences among the three groups:LFCD changes were mainly found in the right hippocampus,left temporal cortex and temporal pole,and bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortices.LFCD of these regions in migraine patients were increased than the HC group.For these regions,LFCD in the CM group was higher than that in the EM group.LFCD was decreased in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices in patients when compared with the HC group.For longFCD,the results of the right temporal cortex and hippocampus showed the same trend as the LFCD results.Moreover,longFCD of bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortices was increased in migraine patients as compared with the HC group,but there were no significant differences between the CM and EM groups.Compared with the HC group,longFCD in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices was slight decreased in the EM group,but no significant difference was found in the CM group.2.Right hippocampus FC differences among groups:Compared with the EM group,functional connectivity between the right hippocampus and bilateral temporal poles was enhanced in the CM group.Compared with the HC group,functional connectivity in bilateral temporal poles and bilateral anterior ventromedial frontal cortices(inferior frontal gyrus,vertical gyrus and anterior cingulate gyrus)in the EM group was increased.In the CM group,significantly increased functional connectivity was observed in bilateral temporal cortices(bilateral temporal poles and superior temporal gyrus,middle temporal gyrus),right hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus,and bilateral anterior ventromedial frontal cortices(inferior frontal gyrus,direct gyrus and anterior cingulate gyrus)compared with the HC group.Conclusion:1.In resting state,the difference among the three groups gathered at the areas closely related to the generation,conduction and regulation of pain itself,as well as the emotional and cognitive changes of patients after frequent and long-term pain attacks.This changes suggest that multiple brain regions are involved in the adjustment to pain and the self-regulation to emotions in migraine patients.2.Brain regions with changes in seed-based FC of right hippocampus were mainly located in the limbic system and medial brain default network.The results indicate that the brain network which is associated with long-term emergency memory and emotional reaction was still active even in the interictal period.It may provide theoretical support for the treatment of interictal period.