Subclinical cerebellar dysfunction in patients with migraine: evidence from eyeblink conditioning

Clinical findings suggest cerebellar dysfunction in patients with migraine. Eyeblink classical conditioning (EBCC) is a simple form of associative learning which depends on the integrity of the cerebellum. The aim of this study was to assess whether EBCC is disturbed in patients with migraine.

A delay conditioning paradigm was used in the headache-free interval in 32 female patients with migraine, in 24 of them without (MwoA) and eight with aura (MwA), and in 32 age-matched female controls. As primary outcome measure acquisition and as secondary outcome measures timing and extinction of conditioned eyeblink responses (CR) were assessed.

CR acquisition was significantly reduced in all migraine patients (mean total CR incidence 35.2 ± 22.1%) compared to controls (54.7 ± 21.3%; p < 0.001; Bonferroni-corrected p level < 0.025) and in MwA patients (19.9 ± 20.2%) compared to matched controls (58.2 ± 27.0%; p = 0.006) but not in MwoA patients (40.3 ± 20.6%) compared to matched controls (53.6 ± 19.7%; p = 0.028; Bonferroni-corrected p level < 0.0166). Decrease of CR incidences in MwA patients was not significantly different compared to MwoA patients (p = 0.021; Bonferroni-corrected p level < 0.0166). CR timing and extinction was not affected in migraine patients.

Reduced acquisition of CRs in the cohort of female patients studied here supports findings of a cerebellar dysfunction in migraine.