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Puledda F, Viganò A, Sebastianelli G, Parisi V, Hsiao FJ, Wang SJ, Chen WT, Massimini M, Coppola G. Electrophysiological findings in migraine may reflect abnormal synaptic plasticity mechanisms: A narrative review. Cephalalgia 2023; 43:3331024231195780. [PMID: 37622421 DOI: 10.1177/03331024231195780] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/26/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The cyclical brain disorder of sensory processing accompanying migraine phases lacks an explanatory unified theory. METHODS We searched Pubmed for non-invasive neurophysiological studies on migraine and related conditions using transcranial magnetic stimulation, electroencephalography, visual and somatosensory evoked potentials. We summarized the literature, reviewed methods, and proposed a unified theory for the pathophysiology of electrophysiological abnormalities underlying migraine recurrence. RESULTS All electrophysiological modalities have determined specific changes in brain dynamics across the different phases of the migraine cycle. Transcranial magnetic stimulation studies show unbalanced recruitment of inhibitory and excitatory circuits, more consistently in aura, which ultimately results in a substantially distorted response to neuromodulation protocols. Electroencephalography investigations highlight a steady pattern of reduced alpha and increased slow rhythms, largely located in posterior brain regions, which tends to normalize closer to the attacks. Finally, non-painful evoked potentials suggest dysfunctions in habituation mechanisms of sensory cortices that revert during ictal phases. CONCLUSION Electrophysiology shows dynamic and recurrent functional alterations within the brainstem-thalamus-cortex loop varies continuously and recurrently in migraineurs. Given the central role of these structures in the selection, elaboration, and learning of sensory information, these functional alterations suggest chronic, probably genetically determined dysfunctions of the synaptic short- and long-term learning mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Puledda
- Headache Group, Wolfson CARD, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | | | - Gabriele Sebastianelli
- Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino ICOT, Latina, Italy
| | | | - Fu-Jung Hsiao
- Department of Neurology, Neurological Institute, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Shuu-Jiun Wang
- Department of Neurology, Neurological Institute, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Wei-Ta Chen
- Department of Neurology, Neurological Institute, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Marcello Massimini
- Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Gianluca Coppola
- Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino ICOT, Latina, Italy
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Coppola G, Ambrosini A. What has neurophysiology revealed about migraine and chronic migraine? HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY 2023; 198:117-133. [PMID: 38043957 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-823356-6.00003-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/05/2023]
Abstract
Since the first electroencephalographic recordings obtained by Golla and Winter in 1959, researchers have used a variety of neurophysiological techniques to determine the mechanisms underlying recurrent migraine attacks. Neurophysiological methods have shown that the brain during the interictal phase of an episodic migraine is characterized by a general hyperresponsiveness to sensory stimuli, a malfunction of the monoaminergic brainstem circuits, and by functional alterations of the thalamus and thalamocortical loop. All of these alterations vary plastically during the phases of the migraine cycle and interictally with the days following the attack. Both episodic migraineurs recorded during an attack and chronic migraineurs are characterized by a general increase in the cortical amplitude response to peripheral sensory stimuli; this is an electrophysiological hallmark of a central sensitization process that is further reinforced through medication overuse. Considering the large-scale functional involvement and the main roles played by the brainstem-thalamo-cortical network in selection, elaboration, and learning of relevant sensory information, future research should move from searching for one specific primary site of dysfunction at the macroscopic level, to the chronic, probably genetically determined, molecular dysfunctions at the synaptic level, responsible for short- and long-term learning mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gianluca Coppola
- Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino - I.C.O.T., Latina, Italy
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Sebastianelli G, Abagnale C, Casillo F, Cioffi E, Parisi V, Di Lorenzo C, Serrao M, Porcaro C, Schoenen J, Coppola G. Bimodal sensory integration in migraine: A study of the effect of visual stimulation on somatosensory evoked cortical responses. Cephalalgia 2022; 42:654-662. [PMID: 35166155 DOI: 10.1177/03331024221075073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Merging of sensory information is a crucial process for adapting the behaviour to the environment in all species. It is not known if this multisensory integration might be dysfunctioning interictally in migraine without aura, where sensory stimuli of various modalities are processed abnormally when delivered separately. To investigate this question, we compared the effects of a concomitant visual stimulation on conventional low-frequency somatosensory evoked potentials and embedded high-frequency oscillations between migraine patients and healthy volunteers. METHODS We recorded somatosensory evoked potentials in 19 healthy volunteers and in 19 interictal migraine without aura patients before, during, and 5 min after (T2) simultaneous synchronous pattern-reversal visual stimulation. At each time point, we measured amplitude and habituation of the N20-P25 low-frequency-somatosensory evoked potentials component and maximal peak-to-peak amplitude of early and late bursts of high-frequency oscillations. RESULTS In healthy volunteers, the bimodal stimulation significantly reduced low-frequency-somatosensory evoked potentials habituation and tended to reduce early high-frequency oscillations that reflect thalamocortical activity. By contrast, in migraine without aura patients, bimodal stimulation significantly increased low-frequency-somatosensory evoked potentials habituation and early high-frequency oscillations. At T2, all visual stimulation-induced changes of somatosensory processing had vanished. CONCLUSION These results suggest a malfunctioning multisensory integration process, which could be favoured by an abnormal excitability level of thalamo-cortical loops.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriele Sebastianelli
- Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Latina, Italy
| | - Chiara Abagnale
- Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Latina, Italy
| | - Francesco Casillo
- Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Latina, Italy
| | - Ettore Cioffi
- Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Latina, Italy
| | | | - Cherubino Di Lorenzo
- Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Latina, Italy
| | - Mariano Serrao
- Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Latina, Italy
| | - Camillo Porcaro
- Department of Neuroscience and Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Padova, Italy.,Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) - National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy.,Centre for Human Brain Health and School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Jean Schoenen
- Headache Research Unit, University Department of Neurology CHR, Citadelle Hospital. University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
| | - Gianluca Coppola
- Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Latina, Italy
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Porcaro C, Di Renzo A, Tinelli E, Di Lorenzo G, Seri S, Di Lorenzo C, Parisi V, Caramia F, Fiorelli M, Di Piero V, Pierelli F, Coppola G. Hypothalamic structural integrity and temporal complexity of cortical information processing at rest in migraine without aura patients between attacks. Sci Rep 2021; 11:18701. [PMID: 34548562 PMCID: PMC8455544 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-98213-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2021] [Accepted: 08/30/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The hypothalamus has been attributed an important role during the premonitory phase of a migraine attack. Less is known about the role played by the hypothalamus in the interictal period and its relationship with the putative neurocognitive networks previously identified in the pathophysiology of migraine. Our aim was to test whether the hypothalamic microstructure would be altered during the interictal period and whether this co-existed with aberrant connectivity at cortical level. We collected multimodal MRI data from 20 untreated patients with migraine without aura between attacks (MO) and 20 healthy controls (HC) and studied fractional anisotropy, mean (MD), radial (RD), and axial diffusivity of the hypothalamus ROI as a whole from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Moreover, we performed an exploratory analysis of the same DTI metrics separately for the anterior and posterior hypothalamic ROIs bilaterally. From resting-state functional MRI, we estimated the Higuchi's fractal dimension (FD), an index of temporal complexity sensible to describe non-periodic patterns characterizing BOLD signature. Finally, we correlated neuroimaging findings with migraine clinical features. In comparison to HC, MO had significantly higher MD, AD, and RD values within the hypothalamus. These findings were confirmed also in the exploratory analysis on the sub-regions of the hypothalamus bilaterally, with the addition of lower FA values on the posterior ROIs. Patients showed higher FD values within the salience network (SN) and the cerebellum, and lower FD values within the primary visual (PV) network compared to HC. We found a positive correlation between cerebellar and SN FD values and severity of migraine. Our findings of hypothalamic abnormalities between migraine attacks may form part of the neuroanatomical substrate that predisposes the onset of the prodromal phase and, therefore, the initiation of an attack. The peculiar fractal dimensionality we found in PV, SN, and cerebellum may be interpreted as an expression of abnormal efficiency demand of brain networks devoted to the integration of sensory, emotional, and cognitive information related to the severity of migraine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camillo Porcaro
- grid.428479.40000 0001 2297 9633Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) - National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy ,grid.6572.60000 0004 1936 7486Centre for Human Brain Health and School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK ,S. Anna Institute and Research in Advanced Neurorehabilitation (RAN), Crotone, Italy ,grid.7010.60000 0001 1017 3210Department of Information Engineering - Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy
| | | | - Emanuele Tinelli
- grid.7841.aDepartment of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Giorgio Di Lorenzo
- grid.6530.00000 0001 2300 0941Laboratory of Psychophysiology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy ,grid.417778.a0000 0001 0692 3437IRCCS - Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
| | - Stefano Seri
- grid.7273.10000 0004 0376 4727College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment, Aston University, Birmingham, UK ,grid.498025.2Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
| | - Cherubino Di Lorenzo
- grid.7841.aDepartment of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Corso della Repubblica 79, 04100 Latina, Italy
| | | | - Francesca Caramia
- grid.7841.aDepartment of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Marco Fiorelli
- grid.7841.aDepartment of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Vittorio Di Piero
- grid.7841.aDepartment of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Pierelli
- grid.7841.aDepartment of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Corso della Repubblica 79, 04100 Latina, Italy ,grid.419543.e0000 0004 1760 3561IRCCS - Neuromed, Pozzilli, IS Italy
| | - Gianluca Coppola
- grid.7841.aDepartment of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Corso della Repubblica 79, 04100 Latina, Italy
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Coppola G, Di Lorenzo C, Di Lenola D, Serrao M, Pierelli F, Parisi V. Visual Evoked Potential Responses after Photostress in Migraine Patients and Their Correlations with Clinical Features. J Clin Med 2021; 10:jcm10050982. [PMID: 33801187 PMCID: PMC7957878 DOI: 10.3390/jcm10050982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2021] [Revised: 02/11/2021] [Accepted: 02/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
In the past few years, researchers have detected subtle macular vision abnormalities using different psychophysical experimental tasks in patients with migraine. Recording of visual evoked potential (VEP) after photostress (PS) represents an objective way to verify the integrity of the dynamic properties of macular performance after exposure to intense light. VEPs were recorded before and after PS in 51 patients with migraine (19 with aura (MA) and 22 without aura (MO) between attacks, and 10 recorded during an attack (MI)) and 14 healthy volunteers. All study participants were exposed to 30 s of PS through the use of a 200-watt bulb lamp. The P100 implicit time and N75-P100 amplitude of the baseline VEP were compared with those collected every 20 s up to 200 s after PS. VEP parameters recorded at baseline did not differ between groups. In all groups, the VEP recordings exhibited a significant increase in implicit times and a reduction in amplitude at 20 s after the PS. In migraine, the percentage decrease in amplitudes observed at 20 s after photostress was significantly lower than in healthy volunteers, in both MO and MA patients, but not in MI patients. When data for MO and MA patients were combined, the percentage of amplitude change at 20 s was negatively correlated with the number of days that had elapsed since the last migraine attack, and positive correlated with attack frequency. We showed dynamic changes of recovery of VEP after PS depending on the migraine cycle. This finding, in conjunction with those previously attained with other neuromodulatory interventions using VEPs, leads us to argue that migraine-disease-related dysrhythmic thalamocortical activity precludes amplitude suppression by PS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gianluca Coppola
- Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Corso della Repubblica 79, 04100 Latina, Italy; (C.D.L.); (D.D.L.); (M.S.); (F.P.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +39-0773-6513337; Fax: +39-0773-651230
| | - Cherubino Di Lorenzo
- Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Corso della Repubblica 79, 04100 Latina, Italy; (C.D.L.); (D.D.L.); (M.S.); (F.P.)
| | - Davide Di Lenola
- Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Corso della Repubblica 79, 04100 Latina, Italy; (C.D.L.); (D.D.L.); (M.S.); (F.P.)
| | - Mariano Serrao
- Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Corso della Repubblica 79, 04100 Latina, Italy; (C.D.L.); (D.D.L.); (M.S.); (F.P.)
| | - Francesco Pierelli
- Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome Polo Pontino, Corso della Repubblica 79, 04100 Latina, Italy; (C.D.L.); (D.D.L.); (M.S.); (F.P.)
- IRCCS—Neuromed, Headache Center, Via Atinense 18, 86077 Pozzilli, IS, Italy
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