A Resting-State FMRI Study In Patients With Vestibular Migraine During Interictal Period

Objective The resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs-fMRI)of the patients with vestibular migraine during the interictal period were analyzed by data processing,then the spontaneous neuronal activities and the changes of brain function network were analyzed,so that the pathophysiology of vestibular migraine can be further understood.Methods Three groups of subjects with general information(gender,age,education level)matched received the scanning of the resting-state fMRI.The three groups contain 18 interictal vestibular migraine(VM)patients,21 interictal migraine without aura(MWoA)patients and 21 healthy volunteers.Firstly,the original data was processed by RESTplus software.Secondly,analysis of variance via SPM12 and bonferroni multiple comparisons were used to obtain brain regions with significant differentia of regional homogeneity(ReHo)or amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation(ALFF)values.Thirdly,Functional connectivity(FC)analysis was performed in the brain region with the most significant differentia of ALFF values where was defined as region of interest(ROI).In addition,the correlation between the ALFF values of the brain region of interest in patients with VM and the duration of headache and the attack frequency were described.Results(1)ReHo: Compared with healthy volunteers,VM patients and MWoA patients showed a significantly decrease of ReHo values in the left inferior occipital gyrus(P<0.05),and a significantly increase of ReHo values in the right superior temporal gyrus(P<0.05).What’s more,there is no obvious abnormality in ReHo between the two groups of patients.(2)ALFF: Compared with healthy volunteers,VM patients and MWoA patients showed a significantly decrease of ALFF values in the right putamen(P<0.05),and a significantly increase of ALFF values in the right lingual gyrus(P<0.05).What’s more,compared with MWoA patients,patients with VM showed a significantly increase of ALFF values in the right lingual gyrus(P<0.05).In addition,we found that ALFF values in the right putamen was negatively correlated with the duration of migraine and the frequency of migraine attacks(P<0.05).(3)Compared with healthy volunteers,patients with VM showed a significantly increase of FC values between the cerebellum,the left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus and the right putamen(P<0.05)but a significantly decrease of FC values between the left median cingulate and paracingulate gyri and the right putamen(P<0.05).Compared with MWoA,patients with VM showed a significantly increase of FC values between the cerebellum and the right putamen(P<0.05)but a significantly decrease of FC values between the left median cingulate and paracingulate gyri and the right putamen(P<0.05).Compared with healthy volunteers,patients with MWoA only showed a significantly increase of FC values between the left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus and the right putamen(P<0.05).Conclusion There are functional abnormalities in nociceptive,vestibular and visual cortex regions in interictal vestibular migraine patients,which not only indicates VM is not just a simple paroxysmal disease,but also supports the hypothesis that VM is a central nervous system disease.These findings lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of VM.