Personality and response to repeated visual stimulation in migraine and tension-type headaches

Migraine sufferers potentiate their visual evoked potentials (VEPs) from a short period of 2 min to a longer period of 15 min. As a lack of habituation is linked to higher level arousal, we thus hypothesized that short-term VEP potentiation might be correlated with an arousal-related personality trait. We therefore carried out short-term VEPs, Plutchik-van Praag's Depression Inventory, Zuckerman's Sensation-Seeking Scales (Form V), and Zuckerman-Kuhlman's Personality Questionnaire in 26 healthy subjects, 22 patients suffering from migraine without aura between attacks, 13 episodic and 20 chronic tension-type headaches. The chronic tension-type headache sufferers showed increased depression compared with other groups, which might be a consequence of the headache itself. Migraines, however, showed steeper habituation slopes of N1-P1 and P1-N2, decreased thrill and adventure-seeking, and general sensation-seeking than healthy controls; in addition, the habituation slope of P1-N2 was positively correlated with experience-seeking in migraine. The short-term VEP potentiation and the decreased thrill and adventure-seeking and general sensation-seeking in migraine might be related to a high level of cortical arousal and a low 5HT neurotransmission. In compliance with the long-term VEP study, the positive correlation between the P1-N2 habituation slope and experience-seeking in migraine suggests a continuous metabolic overload for the brain interictally, which can trigger the activation of a migraine attack.