title: Abnormal brain activity changes in patients with migraine: a short-term longitudinal study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Whether or not migraine can cause cumulative brain alterations due to frequent migraine-related nociceptive input in patients is largely unclear. The aim of this study was to characterize longitudinal changes in brain activity between repeated observations within a short time interval in a group of female migraine patients, using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nineteen patients and 20 healthy controls (HC) participated in the study. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional interregional connectivity were assessed to determine the focal and global features of brain dysfunction in migraine. The relationship between changes in headache parameters and longitudinal brain alterations were also investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All patients reported that their headache activity increased over time. Abnormal ReHo changes in the patient group relative to the HC were found in the putamen, orbitofrontal cortex, secondary somatosensory cortex, brainstem, and thalamus. Moreover, these brain regions exhibited longitudinal ReHo changes at the 6-week follow-up examination. These headache activity changes were accompanied by disproportionately dysfunctional connectivity in the putamen in the migraine patients, as revealed by functional connectivity analysis, suggesting that the putamen plays an important role in integrating diverse information among other migraine-related brain regions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results obtained in this study suggest that progressive brain aberrations in migraine progress as a result of increased headache attacks.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, PR China. ; The 3rd Teaching Hospital, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, PR China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, PR China.
authors.forename: Jixin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, PR China.
authors.forename: Xuemei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Xi'an, PR China.
authors.forename: Wanghuan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dun
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Xi'an, PR China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, PR China.
authors.forename: Liyu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, PR China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kai
authors.affiliation: Information Processing Laboratory, School of Information Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, Inner Mongolia, PR China.
authors.forename: Dahua
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, PR China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, PR China.
authors.forename: Tian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jie
authors.affiliation: The 3rd Teaching Hospital, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, PR China.
authors.forename: Fanrong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liang
keywords: brain functional abnormality; longitudinal study; migraine; resting state