The involvement of the cerebellum in structural connectome changes in episodic migraine without aura

Motivation: While the pathophysiology of migraine remains incompletely understood, several studies reported connectivity disruptions across large-scale brain networks. Goal(s): To study changes in the structural connectome of migraine patients including cortical and subcortical regions as well as the cerebellum, often disregarded. Approach: We performed tractography on diffusion MRI data and applied graph theory metrics to study connectome changes in episodic migraine patients and their healthy controls, using two different whole-brain parcellations. Results: Patients show increased global efficiency and decreased characteristic path length, as well as increased connectivity of cerebellar regions with a greater node degree in the posterior lobe of the cerebellum. Impact: This study sheds light on the importance of including regions other than the cortex in the structural connectome studies of migraine. Indeed, the cerebellum seems to play an important role in migraine, presenting increased connectivity with other regions.