migraine as brain dysfunction

Migraine is among the most disabling medical disorders. Every day, 3,000 migraine attacks occur for each million of general population. Until recently, it was thought vascular problems caused migraine. New research has made it perfectly clear migraine is a pure neurological syndrome.

According to The Oxford Companion to the Mind, migraine is a transient disorder of brain function, which is commonly associated with headache. In fact, migraine has such a clinical heterogeneity that it would be better to talk about migraines. The headache is severe and pulsating in character. It is accompanied by unilateral pain, nausea or vomiting, focal cerebral symptoms, and a family history of the condition. Recovery follows within hours or can take days.

The best explanation for the migraine process is cortical spreading depression (CSD). Cortical spreading depression begins because of a loss of inhibition at neuronal cell bodies. A brief burst of neuronal activity arises. When a group of neurons become active in unison, they trigger a wave of unusual, intense neuronal activity spreading through an area of the cortex.

The electrical surge of the passing CSD wave causes neurons to release chemically active irritants in the brain. They accumulate at the surface in the meningeal tissue where pain-signaling endings of the trigeminal nerve lie.