title: Visual evoked potentials in subgroups of migraine with aura patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients suffering from migraine with aura can have either pure visual auras or complex auras with sensory disturbances and dysphasia, or both. Few studies have searched for possible pathophysiological differences between these two subgroups of patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Methods - Forty-seven migraine with aura patients were subdivided in a subgroup with exclusively visual auras (MA, N = 27) and another with complex neurological auras (MA+, N = 20). We recorded pattern-reversal visual evoked potentials (VEP: 15 min of arc cheques, 3.1 reversal per second, 600 sweeps) and measured amplitude and habituation (slope of the linear regression line of amplitude changes from the 1st to 6th block of 100 sweeps) for the N1-P1 and P1-N2 components in patients and, for comparison, in 30 healthy volunteers (HV) of similar age and gender distribution.
  
  
  RESULTS
  VEP N1-P1 habituation, i.e. amplitude decrement between 1st and 6th block, which was obvious in most HV (mean slope -0.50), was deficient in both MA (slope +0.01, p = 0.0001) and MA+ (-0.0049, p = 0.001) patients. However, VEP N1-P1 amplitudes across blocks were normal in MA patients, while they were significantly greater in MA+ patients than in HVs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that in migraine with aura patients different aura phenotypes may be underpinned by different pathophysiological mechanisms. Pre-activation cortical excitability could be higher in patients with complex neurological auras than in those having pure visual auras or in healthy volunteers.
authors.affiliation: G.B. Bietti Foundation-IRCCS, Department of Neurophysiology of Vision and Neurophthalmology, Via Livenza 3, 00198, Rome, Italy. gianluca.coppola@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Coppola
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, "Sapienza" University of Rome Polo Pontino, Latina, Italy.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bracaglia
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, "Sapienza" University of Rome Polo Pontino, Latina, Italy.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Di Lenola
authors.affiliation: Fondazione Don Gnocchi, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Cherubino
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Di Lorenzo
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, "Sapienza" University of Rome Polo Pontino, Latina, Italy.
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Serrao
authors.affiliation: G.B. Bietti Foundation-IRCCS, Department of Neurophysiology of Vision and Neurophthalmology, Via Livenza 3, 00198, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parisi
authors.affiliation: G.B. Bietti Foundation-IRCCS, Department of Neurophysiology of Vision and Neurophthalmology, Via Livenza 3, 00198, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Renzo
authors.affiliation: Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Dipartimento Tecnologie e Salute, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martelli
authors.affiliation: Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Dipartimento Tecnologie e Salute, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonello
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fadda
authors.affiliation: Headache Research Unit, Department of Neurology-CHR Citadelle, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schoenen
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, "Sapienza" University of Rome Polo Pontino, Latina, Italy.|IRCCS-Neuromed, Pozzilli, IS, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pierelli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020325:Migraine with Aura / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Complex aura; Cortical excitability; Habituation; Migraine with aura; Visual aura; Visual evoked potentials