More than 300 million people suffer from migraine in the world. They can be more or less painful and be accompanied by sensitivity to light, sound or even nausea.
If the symptoms vary, migraine patients would have in common to have cerebral particularities. A previous study revealed atrophy of regions of the cortex (called the cortical regions) of the brain. This atrophy would be due to the chronic stimulation of this area in case of migraine attack.
A new study brings another element to the understanding of migraine at the brain level. Patients would show reduced surface area and cortical thickness in brain regions related to pain processing. Italian researchers made this finding by subjecting 63 migraine patients and 18 non-migraine sufferers to an MRI.
In people with migraine, “cortical surface area increases in late fetal development and cortical thickness changes throughout life as a consequence of disease, observed Dr. Massimo Filippi, director of the University’s Neuroimaging Research Unit Ospedale San Raffaele, quoted by Foxnews. Therefore, we assume that migraine patients would have a cortical signature that would make them more sensitive to pain and migraine symptoms”, continues the researcher. Problem, this cerebral “predisposition” could become a vicious circle, by bringing the result of other cerebral abnormalities and a reduction in cortical thickness.
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