Changed functional connectivity of the visual network in patients with migraineurs without aura / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the changed functional connectivity (FC) of the visual network in patients with migraine without aura (MwoA).Methods:Clinical data of thirty-three patients with MwoA(MwoA group) who visited neurology department from July 2019 to July 2020 were collected, and twenty-two healthy volunteers were recruited as healthy controls (HCs group). All subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, and the RESTplus software package was used to analyze the resting state function data.The visual network was extracted based on independent component analysis to compare the differences in visual cortex.Subsequently, seed-base FC analysis was used to investigate the changed FC between the visual network and rest of whole brain.Results:Compared with the HCs group, the FC of left fusiform gyrus, right lingual gyrus and right superior occipital gyrus (SOG) within the visual network in MwoA group were significantly increased.MowA group showed increased FC between the left fusiform gyrus and the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and left anterior cingulum cortex (ACC), between the right lingual gyrus and left thalamus, left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and right SFG, and between the right SOG and the SFG, as well as the decreased FC between the left fusiform gyrus and the left inferior occipital gyrus (IOG). Moreover, the changed FC between the left fusiform gyrus and left ACC was positively correlated with disease duration ( r=0.365, P=0.047), and the changed FC between the left fusiform with right SFG was negatively correlated with headache severity ( r=-0.424, P=0.020). Conclusion:The FC of inter- and intra-visual network in MwoA patients is changed, with parts of brain regions are associated with some neural circuits.Additionally, the compensatory period translates to the worse period along with disease progression in MwoA.