title: Higher, faster, worse? An event-related potentials study of affective picture processing in migraine.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Migraine is a disorder of periodic disabling headache. Facilitated cortical responsivity has been suggested as one predisposing factor. Although the underlying mechanisms of migraine attack onsets are not fully understood, facilitated cortical responsivity has been suggested as one predisposing factor. Here, we investigate if enhanced cortical responsivity is reflected in altered event-related potentials during processing of complex pictures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Altogether, 16 migraine patients and 16 healthy volunteers participated in this study. Each patient had a diagnosed migraine and was headache- and medication-free for the study. Participants watched positive, negative and neutral pictures from the international affective picture system. An electroencephalogram was recorded during picture presentation. Afterwards, participants were asked to rate the pictures for valence and arousal.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Migraine patients showed significantly more negative-going early event-related potential components from 100 ms to 180 ms to all picture categories over occipital regions as well as more positive-going late potentials over central regions. Patients and controls did not differ in valence and arousal ratings for the international-affective picture system.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with migraine seem to react cortically more intensely to all kinds of pictorial stimuli, regardless of emotional content. This facilitated processing may be related to the high cortical responsivity shown in various other event-related potential studies and might contribute to the recurring intense headache attacks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Germany Inga.Steppacher@Uni-Bielefeld.de.
authors.forename: Inga
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Steppacher
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schindler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Germany.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kissler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Migraine; event-related potentials; international affective picture system; late-positive-potential