The Posterior Insula Shows Disrupted Brain Functional Connectivity in Female Migraineurs Without Aura Based on Brainnetome Atlas

Abstract

Long-term headache attacks may cause human brain network reorganization in patients with migraine. In the current study, we calculated the topologic properties of functional networks based on the Brainnetome atlas using graph theory analysis in 29 female migraineurs without aura (MWoA) and in 29 female age-matched healthy controls. Compared with controls, female MWoA exhibited that the network properties altered, and the nodal centralities decreased/increased in some brain areas. In particular, the right posterior insula and the left medial superior occipital gyrus of patients exhibited significantly decreased nodal centrality compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, female MWoA exhibited a disrupted functional network, and notably, the two sub-regions of the right posterior insula exhibited decreased functional connectivity with many other brain regions. The topological metrics of functional networks in female MWoA included alterations in the nodal centrality of brain regions and disrupted connections between pair regions primarily involved in the discrimination of sensory features of pain, pain modulation or processing and sensory integration processing. In addition, the posterior insula decreased the nodal centrality, and exhibited disrupted connectivity with many other brain areas in female migraineurs, which suggests that the posterior insula plays an important role in female migraine pathology.

Functional Alterations in the Posterior Insula and Cerebellum in Migraine Without Aura: A Resting-State MRI Study

“…Our data showed that the right posterior insula had increased DC as well as increased FC with the postcentral gyrus, SMA/PCL, fusiform gyrus, and temporal pole in migraine patients relative to controls. Right-sided lateralization of insula abnormalities has also been observed in a number of structural and functional studies of pain or migraine (Symonds, 2006 ; Maleki et al, 2012 , 2015 ; Zhang et al, 2017 ). Partially consistent with our results, the posterior insula showed reduced habituation associated with amplification of trigeminal brainstem input in a previous study on episodic migraine without aura (Lee et al, 2017 ).…”

Abnormal functional connectivity under somatosensory stimulation in migraine: a multi-frequency magnetoencephalography study

“…Small-World models are characterized by high clustering and short path length; therefore, they are widely used in neural networks, which confers the ability for specific information processing in a modular way among neighboring regions even over the whole network [47]. Deviation of the functional network topology in migraineurs has been demonstrated by other studies [48, 49]. In the present study, the abnormal networks can be characterized as increased degree in the theta, beta, and gamma bands; increased path length in the beta, gamma, and ripple bands; increased strength in the beta and gamma bands; and finally, an increased clustering coefficient in the theta, beta, and gamma bands.…”

Altered lateral geniculate nucleus functional connectivity in migraine without aura: a resting-state functional MRI study

“…Structural MR studies have shown cortical visual areas changes in MwA, MwoA, or both subgroups in V2, V3A, V5 (also known as MT) [7,11,[15][16][17]. Functional neuroimaging evidence over the past decade has shown specific brain function in migraine patients is abnormal compared to normal controls [10,12,[18][19][20][21][22]. Some studies have shown "overactivity" of the visual cortex during migraine episodes [23] and interictal interval [24].…”