Cohort study, 2025
Does migraine affect your ability to think clearly?
Women with migraine performed as well as healthy women on a memory task, but their brains showed lower activity in a deep brain region after an attack. Results are from a small group, so we should be cautious.
What they did
10 women with menstrual migraine and 14 healthy women did brain scans while doing a memory task. Scans were done at different phases of their migraine or menstrual cycle: before attack, during attack, after attack, and between attacks.
What they found
Both groups performed equally on the memory task. Memory-related brain regions lit up similarly. Migraine patients showed significantly lower activity in the hypothalamus (a deep brain region) after an attack compared to controls (percent signal change -2 versus 31).
What it means for you
Migraine does not appear to harm your thinking or memory. However, a deep brain region involved in hormone control works differently after an attack. The study was small (only 10 migraine patients), so results may not apply broadly.
10
migraine patients
14
healthy controls
4
phases of migraine cycle measured
About the study
- Original title
- Preserved working memory performance along with subcortical modulation during peri-ictal phases in spontaneous migraine attacks
- Authors
- Ruiz-Tagle A, Caetano G, Fouto A et al.
- Journal
- Headache
- Year
- 2025
- Study design
- Cohort study
- Participants
- 14
- What was tested
- Working memory task during brain imaging at different migraine cycle phases
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1111/head.14850
Topics
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