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Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns
Published on: May 12, 2019
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Differences in early and late pattern-onset visual-evoked potentials between self- reported migraineurs and controls.
Chun Yuen Fong1, Wai Him Crystal Law1, Jason J Braithwaite2
1School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
Neuroimage. Clinical
|January 14, 2020
Summary
Migraineurs exhibit altered visual processing, with increased N2 amplitude and reduced late negativity in response to striped patterns. These findings support the cortical hyperexcitation hypothesis in migraine.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Ophthalmology
- Neurology
Background:
- Striped patterns can trigger visual illusions and discomfort in migraineurs.
- This is hypothesized to be due to hyperactivity in the visual cortex of migraine sufferers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the link between visual cortex hyperactivity and migraine.
- To compare visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in migraineurs and non-migraineurs exposed to striped patterns.
Main Methods:
- Compared VEPs elicited by striped patterns (0.5, 3, 13 cycles-per-degree) between 29 migraineurs and 31 non-migraineurs.
- Assessed VEPs in non-migraineurs classified as hyperexcitable or non-hyperexcitable via a glare task.
Main Results:
- Migraineurs showed increased N2 amplitude for 13 cpd gratings and attenuated late negativity (400-500 ms) across all spatial frequencies.
- Hyperexcitable non-migraineurs displayed similar, though attenuated, response patterns to migraineurs.
Conclusions:
- Enhanced N2 suggests disrupted parvocellular/magnocellular pathway balance, supporting cortical hyperexcitation in migraine.
- Attenuated late negativity may indicate a top-down feedback mechanism for suppressing aversive visual stimuli.
