[The fMRI research of vestibular migraine neural pathways].

Objective

To investigate the abnormal functional response of neural pathways of vestibular migraine (VM) patients, located the functional area, and inferred the possible mechanism. Method:Twenty patients of VM, 20 of migraine without aura (MwoA), and 20 of healthy controls (HC), underwent whole-brain blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI during ear irrigation with cold water. We chose the stimulation image and the diapause stimulation image. Analyses explored functional area with BOLD signal change of the three groups. Result:We observed task-positive BOLD signal change in cortical and subcortical pattern in response to ear irrigation of all participants. Such as parietal lobe, temporal lobe, insular lobe, cingulate gyrus, thalamus, caudate nucleus, optic radiation, precuneus. VM patients showed a significantly task-negative in thalamic and fusiform gyrus in comparison with the other groups (P<0.05).

Conclusion

fMRI could response the respective functional area objectively. We inferred the possible mechanism of VM was abnormal activation of thalamus and fusiform gyrus, produced crossing between the vestibular sensory pathway conduction and the pain conduction.