Peter Dechent1, Katharina Saller1,2, Carmen Morawetz1, Jrgen Baudewig1, Walter Paulus2, Andrea Antal2
1MR-Research in Neurology and Psychiatry, University Gttingen, Gttingen, Germany; 2Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University Gttingen, Gttingen, Germany
Differences in visual perception measures between people with/without migraine have been attributed to abnormal cortical processing. Here, we explored the dynamics of the basic interictal state regarding extrastriate, motion-responsive middle-temporal (MT) and medial-superior-temporal area (MST) using fMRI (3Tesla) with different moving dot stimuli on 18 migraine patients (with/without aura (MwA/MwoA)) and 9 controls. Compared with controls and MwoA patients, MwA patients showed higher signal changes in bilateral MST, but not in MT. This implies an enhanced responsiveness of MST of MwA patients and strengthens the hypothesis that hyperexcitability of the visual cortex in these patients goes beyond primary visual areas.