Attention Deficits in Migraine: Mismatch Negativity and P3a in an Event-Related Potential Study

Ping Nie,1,* Teng Wang,1,* Qian Wu,1 Weikai Chen,1,2 Feifei Shen,1 Lin Huang,1 Xin Dong1,3 1Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurology, The Third Hospital of Xiamen, Xiamen, 361000, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Neurosurgery, Chongqing Hospital of Jiangsu Province Hospital, Chongqing, 401420, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Xin Dong; Lin Huang, Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No.300 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, 210029, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Attention performance in chronic migraine remains unclear. The present study aimed to explore the pre-attentive detection and attention orienting ability in individuals with chronic migraine (CM) measured by mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a components and assess their associations with migraine characteristics.Methods: This cross-sectional observational study recruited 25 individuals with episodic migraine (EM), 25 individuals with CM and 25 healthy controls (HC) matched for age, sex, and educational level. The MMN and P3a components were measured using event-related potential (ERPs) tools with auditory oddball paradigms and migraine characteristics were collected.Results: Individuals with CM exhibited a longer MMN latency (p = 0.010) and a lower P3a amplitude than HC (p = 0.004) and EM (p = 0.002). Correlation analysis showed that P3a amplitude was negatively correlated with headache attack frequency and the Migraine Disability Assessment Scale (MIDAS), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), and Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) scores.Conclusion: Individuals with CM showed deficits in pre-attentive detection and attention orientation. Moreover, attention-oriented dysfunction is associated with headache attack frequency, headache-related disability, anxiety and depression.Keywords: migraine, event-related potentials, ERPs, attention, mismatch negativity, MMN, P3a