Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Migraine headache is uniquely exacerbated by light. Using psychophysical assessments in patients with normal eyesight we found that green light exacerbates migraine headache significantly less than white, blue, amber or red lights. To delineate mechanisms, we used electroretinography and visual evoked potential recording in patients, and multi-unit recording of dura- and light-sensitive thalamic neurons in rats to show that green activates cone-driven retinal pathways to a lesser extent than white, blue and red; that thalamic neurons are most responsive to blue and least responsive to green; and that cortical responses to green are significantly smaller than those generated by blue, amber and red lights. These findings suggest that patients' experience with colour and migraine photophobia could originate in cone-driven retinal pathways, fine-tuned in relay thalamic neurons outside the main visual pathway, and preserved by the cortex. Additionally, the findings provide substrate for the soothing effects of green light.
Source: Brain
DOI: 10.1093/brain/aww119
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: Imaging Pain and Analgesia: Mentoring in Basic and Applied Research, Neural Basis of Occipital Headache, Cortical Mechanisms of Headache: Beyond CSD, Migraine pathophysiology: neural basis of photophobia, G453267231, Photophobia during migraine: sensory, autonomic and emotional responses to light, Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center
OpenAlex ID: W2405593464