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Published on: June 2, 2014
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Vision and Hyper-Responsiveness in Migraine
Amelia Aldrich1, Paul Hibbard1, Arnold Wilkins1
1Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK.
Vision (Basel, Switzerland)
|November 19, 2019
Summary
Migraine patients with aura show enhanced contrast perception in the affected visual field. Comfortable colored lenses, however, normalize this enhanced perception, suggesting a link between cortical hyper-responsiveness and contrast sensitivity.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Ophthalmology
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Migraine is a neurological disorder associated with cortical hyperexcitability.
- Visual discomfort and altered sensory processing are common in migraineurs.
- The relationship between contrast processing, visual comfort, and migraine remains incompletely understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate contrast processing in individuals with migraine with and without aura.
- To explore the impact of colored light on visual comfort and contrast perception in migraineurs.
- To determine if specific light colors can modulate the enhanced contrast sensitivity observed in migraine with aura.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Contrast discrimination task in migraine with aura (MA), migraine without aura (MO), and healthy controls.
- Experiment 2: Assessment of comfortable light color preferences in MA, MO, and controls.
- Experiment 3: Contrast discrimination with comfortable colored lenses versus neutral grey lenses in individuals with unilateral aura.
Main Results:
- No significant group differences in overall contrast discrimination, but superior performance in the aura-affected visual field for participants with consistently lateralized aura.
- Individuals with aura preferred more saturated colors distant from the daylight locus compared to controls.
- Comfortable colored lenses reduced the enhanced contrast discrimination in the aura-affected visual field, normalizing performance in individuals with unilateral aura.
Conclusions:
- Cortical hyper-responsiveness in migraine may enhance contrast perception.
- Ophthalmic lenses with comfortable colors can modulate and normalize the heightened contrast sensitivity in migraine with aura.
- These findings suggest a potential therapeutic role for specific light filtering in managing visual disturbances in migraine.
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