MIGRAINE BREAKTHROUGH

In February, a team from the Universities of Birmingham and Lancaster published a study that found migraine-sufferers appear to have a hyper-excitable visual cortex.

The team examined 60 volunteers who were asked to rate a pattern according to how uncomfortable it was to look at, and noted any associated visual phenomena they experienced. The volunteers’ brain activity in response to the patterns was also monitored. The team found that a larger response was consistently found in the visual cortexes of migraine sufferers.

“Our study provides evidence there are likely specific anomalies present in the way the visual cortex of migraine sufferers processes information from the outside world,” said senior author

Dr Ali Mazaheri.