Visual evoked potentials in migraine patients: alterations depend on pattern spatial frequency.

Visual information is conducted by two parallel pathways (luminance- and contour-processing pathways) which are thought to be differentially affected in migraine and can be investigated by means of pattern-reversal visual evoked potentials (VEPs). Components and habituation of VEPs at four spatial frequencies were compared between 26 migraineurs (13 without aura, MO; 13 with aura, MA) and 28 healthy volunteers. Migraineurs were recorded in the headache-free interval (at least 72 h before and after an attack). Five blocks of 50 responses to chequerboards of 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 cycles per degree (c.p.d.) were sequentially averaged and analysed for latency and amplitude. Differences in VEPs were dependent on spatial frequency. Only when small checks were presented, i.e. at high spatial frequency (2 and 4 c.p.d.), was the latency of N2 significantly prolonged in MA and did it tend to be delayed in MO subjects. Habituation behaviour was not significantly different between groups under the stimulating conditions employed. Prolonged N2 latency might be explained by the lack or attenuation of a contour-specific component N130 in migraineurs, indicating an imbalance of the two visual pathways with relative predominance of the luminance-processing Y system. These results reflect an interictally persisting dysfunction of precortical visual processing which might be relevant in the pathophysiology of migraine.