Spontaneous brain activity abnormalities in migraine: A meta‐analysis of functional neuroimaging

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that migraine is accompanied by spontaneous brain activity alterations in specific regions. However, these findings are inconsistent, thus hindering our understanding of the potential neuropathology. Hence, we performed a quantitative whole‐brain meta‐analysis of relevant resting‐state functional imaging studies to identify brain regions consistently involved in migraine. A systematic search of studies that investigated the differences in spontaneous brain activity patterns between migraineurs and healthy controls up to April 2022 was conducted. We then performed a whole‐brain voxel‐wise meta‐analysis using the anisotropic effect size version of seed‐based d mapping software. Complementary analyses including jackknife sensitivity analysis, heterogeneity test, publication bias test, subgroup analysis, and meta‐regression analysis were conducted as well. In total, 24 studies that reported 31 datasets were finally eligible for our meta‐analysis, including 748 patients and 690 controls. In contrast to healthy controls, migraineurs demonstrated consistent and robust decreased spontaneous brain activity in the angular gyrus, visual cortex, and cerebellum, while increased activity in the caudate, thalamus, pons, and prefrontal cortex. Results were robust and highly replicable in the following jackknife sensitivity analysis and subgroup analysis. Meta‐regression analyses revealed that a higher visual analog scale score in the patient sample was associated with increased spontaneous brain activity in the left thalamus. These findings provided not only a comprehensive overview of spontaneous brain activity patterns impairments, but also useful insights into the pathophysiology of dysfunction in migraine.

Regional abnormalities of spontaneous brain activity in migraine: A coordinate‐based meta‐analysis

“…Moreover, the abnormal activity in MFG was negatively correlated with the pain intensity of migraine attacks (Russo et al, 2012). The abnormal neural activity of the IFGtriang was also detected in migraine patients (Cai et al, 2022; Yang et al, 2022). The PreCG is an important part of the frontal lobe, which was found abnormality in migraine patients and is related to pain processing and modulation (Androulakis et al, 2018; Liu et al, 2012).…”

“…According to a prior study, the frequency of headache attacks (days of attacks/month) in migraine patients significantly influences the activation magnitude of the THA.L (Russo et al, 2014). And headache severity in migraine patients was positively associated with brain activity in the THA.L (Cai et al, 2022).…”

“…According to a prior study, the frequency of headache attacks (days of attacks/month) in migraine patients significantly influences the activation magnitude of the THA.L (Russo et al, 2014). And headache severity in migraine patients was positively associated with brain activity in the THA.L (Cai et al, 2022). Besides, compared with HCs, structural abnormality of the REC has been detected in migraine with medication‐overuse headaches but has not been discovered in migraine without medication‐overuse headaches (Yu et al, 2014).…”

The brain structure and function abnormalities of migraineurs: A systematic review and neuroimaging meta-analysis

“…ReHo is specialized in explore local connectivity in a specific region by characterizing its relationship with nearby voxels in a specific region ( 59 ). Meta-regression analysis has indicated that migraine patients' visual analog scale score was associated with increased brain activity in the left thalamus ( 20 ). Using different meta-analysis method and sensitivity analysis, we also concluded that the left thalamus and brainstem of migraine patients were more spontaneous activated than HCs.…”

“…If there are regions that both function and structure altered in migraine patients. Based on ReHo, amplitude low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and positron emission tomography (PET), meta-analysis demonstrated decreased activity in the angular gyrus, visual cortex, and cerebellum, while increased in the caudate, thalamus, pons, and prefrontal cortex ( 20 ). On the other hand, GMV decrease in posterior insular-opercular regions, the bilateral prefrontal cortex, and the anterior cingulate cortex were revealed with AES-SDM ( 3 , 5 ).…”