Attention orienting dysfunction with preserved automatic auditory change detection in migraine.

OBJECTIVE To investigate automatic event-related potentials (ERPs) to an auditory change in migraine patients. METHODS Auditory ERPs were recorded in 22 female patients suffering from menstrually-related migraine and in 20 age-matched control subjects, in three sessions: in the middle of the menstrual cycle, before and during menses. In each session, 200 trains of tone-bursts each including two duration deviants were presented in a passive listening condition. RESULTS In all sessions, duration deviance elicited a mismatch negativity (MMN) showing no difference between the two groups. However, migraine patients showed an increased N1 orienting component to all incoming stimuli and a prolonged N2b to deviance. They also presented a different modulation of P3a amplitude along the menstrual cycle, which tended to normalise during migraine attacks. None of the studied ERP components showed a default of habituation. CONCLUSIONS This passive paradigm highlighted increased automatic attention orienting to auditory changes but normal auditory sensory processing in migraineurs. SIGNIFICANCE Our observations suggest normal auditory processing up to attention triggering but enhanced activation of attention-related frontal networks in migraineurs.