Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 22, 2025
3D-Neuronavigation In Vivo Through a Patient's Brain During a Spontaneous Migraine Headache
Published on: June 2, 2014
Laterality judgements in patients with frequent episodic migraine
Kerstin Luedtke1, Julian Edlhaimb2
1Department of Health Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy, Pain and Exercise Research Luebeck (P.E.R.L), University of Luebeck, Luebeck, Germany; Laboratory of Pain Research, Institute of Physiotherapy and Health Sciences, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.
Introduction:
Migraine is a cyclic disorder but also a chronic pain condition. Left-right recognition tasks have been shown to be impaired in patients with chronic pain.
Objectives:
To investigate whether laterality judgements of migraine patients depend on the status within the migraine cycle.
Methods:
34 episodic migraine patients completed a laterality recognition task on 30 consecutive days using the Recognise™ software. Reaction time and number of mistakes of recognising the left or right side of a face or neck movements to the right or left were recorded and analysed longitudinally. Ictal days (48 h and 24 h prior to the attack; during the headache phase; 24 h after the attack) were contrasted against interictal days using repeated measures ANOVAs. 4 headache-free controls served to investigate the natural fluctuation over time and to compare migraine versus non-migraine data in a secondary exploratory analysis.
Results:
1691 data sets from migraine patients and 183 from control participants were included in the analyses. Results indicated that performance varied throughout the migraine cycle but only showed a clear pattern of prolonged response times for images of movements to the right (F(4,1690) = 2.412; p = 0.047), while data for frequency of correct answers and for the left side remained inconclusive. Migraine patients had a reduced frequency of correct answers (right: F(1,1873) = 11.426; p = 0.001; left: F(1,1873) = 5.873; p = 0.015). Response times where unaffected. Laterality judgements were not correlated with the dominant headache side.
Conclusions:
The current data shows that laterality judgements can depend on the status within the migraine cycle. Laterality judgements of migraine patients where comparable to other chronic pain conditions.
Insights
Migraine patients show varying performance on left-right recognition tasks depending on their cycle status. This suggests laterality judgments in migraine are influenced by the condition
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Pain Medicine
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Migraine is a cyclic disorder and a chronic pain condition.
- Left-right recognition, a measure of spatial awareness, is often impaired in individuals with chronic pain.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if laterality judgments in migraine patients fluctuate with their migraine cycle.
- To compare migraine patients' laterality judgment performance to healthy controls.
Main Methods:
- Episodic migraine patients (n=34) performed a daily laterality recognition task for 30 days.
- Performance (reaction time, accuracy) was longitudinally analyzed, contrasting ictal and interictal days.
- Healthy controls (n=4) provided baseline and fluctuation data.
Main Results:
- Migraine patient performance varied across the migraine cycle.
- Prolonged response times were observed for right-sided movement recognition (p=0.047).
- Migraine patients exhibited reduced accuracy in laterality judgments overall (p<0.015).
Conclusions:
- Laterality judgments in migraine patients are influenced by their current status within the migraine cycle.
- These findings align with observed deficits in spatial awareness in other chronic pain conditions.
More Related Videos
07:03Evaluation of Hemisphere Lateralization with Bilateral Local Field Potential Recording in Secondary Motor Cortex of Mice
Published on: July 31, 2019
09:57Author Spotlight: Advancing Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery in Children Through Novel Biomarkers and Enhanced Localization
Published on: September 20, 2024
