Correlation between Cognition and Quantitative EEG Changes in Patients with Migraine

Abstract

Background: Migraine is a common debilitating disorder characterized by attacks of mostly unilateral, moderate to severe, throbbingheadaches. The diagnosis of migraine is made according to the third edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders developed by the International Headache Society. There are several types of migraine, the most common of which are migraine without aura and migraine with aura. Objectives: This study aims to find the correlations between quantitative EEG changes and cognition in migraine patients. Patients and Methods: The study included 20 migraine patients,10 during pain attack (ictal phase) and 10 during pain-free period (inter-ictal), in addition to18 healthy controls.Montreal cognitive assessment and 20 minutes scalp EEG were done. After that, four seconds epochs were taken from the EEG record to find the powerspectral density (PSD) for each of the waves in the range of[detlaδ(0.5-4)Hz, theta θ(4-8)Hz, alpha α (8-12)Hz,and beta β (12-30)Hz]. The study was conducted in Al-Shaheed Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital in Baghdad from October 1, 2022, to May 1, 2023. Results: Quantitative EEG analysis revealed that there is a significant decrease in theta and beta waves in descending pattern from control to inter-ictal and then to ictal migraine patientswhile alpha wave increased in ascending pattern from control to inter-ictal to ictal migraine patients. In cognition, there was a significant difference between controls and migraine patients in recall memory, language, and abstraction domains. Conclusions: Quantitative EEG findings suggest that alpha waves correlate negatively with cognition, while both theta and beta waves correlate positively with cognitive level. Received: June,, 2022 Accepted: Oct. 2023 Published: Jan.2024