Current understanding of premonitory networks in migraine

TY - JOUR

T1 - Current understanding of premonitory networks in migraine

T2 - A window to attack generation

AU - Schulte, Laura H

AU - Peng, Kuan-Po

PY - 2019/11

Y1 - 2019/11

N2 - AIM: To describe neuronal networks underlying commonly reported migraine premonitory symptoms and to discuss how these might precipitate migraine pain.BACKGROUND: Migraine headache is frequently preceded by a distinct and well characterized premonitory phase including symptoms like yawning, sleep disturbances, alterations in appetite and food intake and hypersensitivity to certain external stimuli. Recent neuroimaging studies strongly suggest the hypothalamus as the key mediator of the premonitory phase and also suggested alterations in hypothalamic networks as a mechanism of migraine attack generation. When looking at the vast evidence from basic research within the last decades, hypothalamic and thalamic networks are most likely to integrate peripheral influences with central mechanisms, facilitating the precipitation of migraine headaches. These networks include sleep, feeding and stress modulating centers within the hypothalamus, thalamic pathways and brainstem centers closely involved in trigeminal pain processing such as the spinal trigeminal nucleus and the rostral ventromedial medulla, all of which are closely interconnected.CONCLUSION: Taken together, these networks represent the pathophysiological basis for migraine premonitory symptoms as well as a possible integration site of peripheral so-called "triggers" with central attack facilitating processes.

AB - AIM: To describe neuronal networks underlying commonly reported migraine premonitory symptoms and to discuss how these might precipitate migraine pain.BACKGROUND: Migraine headache is frequently preceded by a distinct and well characterized premonitory phase including symptoms like yawning, sleep disturbances, alterations in appetite and food intake and hypersensitivity to certain external stimuli. Recent neuroimaging studies strongly suggest the hypothalamus as the key mediator of the premonitory phase and also suggested alterations in hypothalamic networks as a mechanism of migraine attack generation. When looking at the vast evidence from basic research within the last decades, hypothalamic and thalamic networks are most likely to integrate peripheral influences with central mechanisms, facilitating the precipitation of migraine headaches. These networks include sleep, feeding and stress modulating centers within the hypothalamus, thalamic pathways and brainstem centers closely involved in trigeminal pain processing such as the spinal trigeminal nucleus and the rostral ventromedial medulla, all of which are closely interconnected.CONCLUSION: Taken together, these networks represent the pathophysiological basis for migraine premonitory symptoms as well as a possible integration site of peripheral so-called "triggers" with central attack facilitating processes.

U2 - 10.1177/0333102419883375

DO - 10.1177/0333102419883375

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 31615269

VL - 39

SP - 1720

EP - 1727

JO - CEPHALALGIA

JF - CEPHALALGIA

SN - 0333-1024

IS - 13

ER -