Preference for Lighting Chromaticity in Migraine With Aura

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology and visual science
• Neuroscience
• Human factors engineering

Background:

• Individuals experiencing migraine with aura (MWA) report preferring more saturated colors for reading compared to those without migraine.
• Photophobia is a common symptom associated with migraine, potentially influencing light perception and comfort.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the color preferences for comfortable reading in individuals with and without migraine.
• To assess the impact of preferred lighting colors on visual performance in different participant groups.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional laboratory study involving individuals with MWA, migraine without aura, and healthy controls.
• Utilized an Intuitive Colorimeter to independently adjust hue and saturation of light illuminating text, while maintaining constant luminance.
• Assessed visual performance using a word search task under both white light and individually selected comfortable colored light via tinted lenses.

Main Results:

• Healthy controls selected light chromaticities near the Planckian locus (daylight approximation).
• Individuals with MWA chose significantly more saturated colors, deviating from the Planckian locus.
• Migraineurs with aura showed a 45.7% average increase in word search speed when using lenses matching their preferred comfortable color, while controls showed no significant change.

Conclusions:

• Individuals with MWA exhibit distinct color preferences, selecting highly saturated colors potentially due to increased susceptibility to photophobia under typical lighting.
• Tinted lenses providing light in the preferred color range significantly improved visual task performance for individuals with MWA.
• The chosen comfortable light spectral power did not show a clear relationship with melanopic energy, suggesting complex mechanisms beyond direct retinal photoreceptor response.