ID 96 – Spatial attention effect on SEP components differentiates migraine children with imploding pain from those with exploding pain. Issue 3 (March 2016) - Iacovelli, E.
Abstract : Objectives: Different pathophysiological mechanisms have been demonstrated in young migraineurs with either imploding (IP) or exploding (EP) pain (Iacovelli et al., 2013). Our aim was to investigate whether the effect of spatial attention on SEPs is different between IP and EP migraineurs. Methods: We studied 10 IP migraineurs and 9 EP migraine children. SEPs to median nerve stimulation were recorded from 31 scalp electrodes in neutral condition (NC) and in spatial attention condition (SAC), in which subject had to count tactile stimuli delivered on the stimulated hand. Results: In the frontal region the N140 amplitude increase in SAC was higher in EP than IP migraineurs ( F = 6.41, p = 0.01). In both NC ( F = 15, p < 0.001) and SAC ( F = 10.2, p = 0.001), the N140 latency was shorter in IP than in EP patients. In NC, the N120 latency was shorter in IP than in EP migraineurs ( F = 6.5, p = 0.01). In EP patients, but not in IP migraineurs, the P100 latency was shorter in SAC than in NC ( p = 0.04). Conclusions: Our results suggest that the psychophysiological mechanisms underlying spatial attention are different in migraine children with imploding or exploding pain. Key message: This study confirms that pain directionality represents an important phenotypic aspect of pediatric migraine.