Cognitive processing of visual images in migraine populations in between headache attacks

• Previous literature show that migraineurs have visual sensory deficits in between headache events.
• This research reveals migraineurs also have post-sensory consequences of migraine in between headache events.
• Specifically, migraineurs show abnormal cognitive evaluative processing with a lack of normal categorical hedonic evaluation.

Background and objectivePeople with migraine headache have altered interictal visual sensory-level processing in between headache attacks. Here we examined the extent to which these migraine abnormalities may extend into higher visual processing such as implicit evaluative analysis of visual images in between migraine events.MethodsSpecifically, we asked two groups of participants––migraineurs (N=29) and non-migraine controls (N=29)––to view a set of unfamiliar commercial logos in the context of a target identification task as the brain electrical responses to these objects were recorded via event-related potentials (ERPs). Following this task, participants individually identified those logos that they most liked or disliked. We applied a between-groups comparison of how ERP responses to logos varied as a function of hedonic evaluation.ResultsOur results suggest migraineurs have abnormal implicit evaluative processing of visual stimuli. Specifically, migraineurs lacked a bias for disliked logos found in control subjects, as measured via a late positive potential (LPP) ERP component.ConclusionsThese results suggest post-sensory consequences of migraine in between headache events, specifically abnormal cognitive evaluative processing with a lack of normal categorical hedonic evaluation.