Abstract text (incl. figure legends and references)
Previous neuroimaging studies have examined alterations in brain function in patients with migraine, but the whole-brain investigation is relatively scarce. Here, we aim to assess atypical whole-brain organization of brain function in patients with migraine using functional MRI and dimensionality reduction techniques.
We recruited 50 patients with migraine, and sex- and age- matched healthy controls from Samsung Medical Center. Imaging data were preprocessed using fusion of neuroimaging preprocessing (FuNP) surfaced-based pipeline [Park, 2019, Front. Neuroinform.]. Functional connectivity matrix was constructed by calculating Pearson"s correlation of time series between different brain regions and Fisher"s r-to-z transformed. We generated low-dimensional representations of functional connectivity (i.e., eigenvectors) across the cortex [Margulies, 2016, PNAS], and assessed between-group differences in the eigenvectors between patients with migraine and healthy controls using multivariate analysis with controlling for age and sex. The subcortical alterations were assessed using the nodal degree values of subcortical weighted manifolds, defined by a subcortico-cortical connectivity multiplied by cortical eigenvectors [Park, 2021, Nat. Commun.]. The multiple comparisons were corrected using false discovery rate (FDR)< 0.05.
The eigenvectors showed significant between-group differences in early visual, somatomotor, and temporal pole, as well as amygdala. Stratifying the effects according to seven intrinsic functional communities [Yeo, 2011, J. Neurophysiol.], dorsal attention, visual and limbic network revealed strong effects.
The current study found that migraine is associated with altered brain function in low-level sensory and higher-order limbic systems, including an associated subcortical structure. Our findings may provide insights for understanding whole-brain alterations in migraine.