Somatosensory system excitability in migraine

Migraine is a common disorder that reduces normal day-to-day activities, including those connected with work. While migraine has long been considered a disease of the head vascular structures, there is increasing evidence that the somatosensory system plays a primary role in the cascade of events that trigger the migraine attacks and in its pathophysiology. Neurophysiological techniques are used to explore the function of the somatosensory system and to obtain a direct measure of its excitability, and these data may help to reveal some of the pathophysiological mechanisms of migraine. Moreover, neurophysiological methods are used to selectively explore both the nociceptive and the non-nociceptive somatosensory pathways. Given that pain represents the most important migraine symptom, functional exploration of the ‘pain matrix’ may contribute several elements towards our understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms in migraine. We reviewed the most important neurophysiological studies investigating the functional status of both the nociceptive and non-nociceptive somatosensory cortex in migraine, underlining the original contribution that can be obtained by neurophysiological exploration of the somatosensory system.