ReviewNeurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology2017
Understanding migraine as a cycling brain syndrome: reviewing the evidence from functional imaging.
Review in Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
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47 citing papers in PubMed, 98 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical Outcomes of Ultrasound-Guided Stellate Ganglion Block in Highly Treatment-Resistant Chronic Migraine: A 6-Month Prospective Single-Group Interventional Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- Temporal Changes in Affective Symptoms, Headache Burden, and Quality of Life Following rTMS Treatment in Migraine: A Longitudinal Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Hypothalamic and sex-related hormones in migraine.The journal of headache and pain · 2026Review
- Visualizing nociplastic pain: functional hyperexcitability in neuropathic and idiopathic facial pain syndromes.The journal of headache and pain · 2025Article
- Pathophysiological changes in incentive processing in episodic migraine: a preliminary event-related potential study.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2025Article
- Offset analgesia as a marker of dysfunctional pain modulation in episodic and chronic migraine.The journal of headache and pain · 2025Article
- Neural correlates of pain acceptance and the role of the cerebellum: Functional connectivity and anatomical differences in individuals with headaches versus matched controls.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Cycling sensitivity across migraine phases: A longitudinal case-control study.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Hallmarks of primary headache: part 1 - migraine.The journal of headache and pain · 2024Review
- Hypoperfusion of hypothalamic subunits in medication-overuse headache using a 3D PCASL MRI.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Arterial spin labeling MRI applied to migraine: current insights and future perspectives.The journal of headache and pain · 2023Review
- Expression of vasopressin and its receptors in migraine-related regions in CNS and the trigeminal system: influence of sex.The journal of headache and pain · 2022Article
- Galcanezumab modulates Capsaicin-induced C-fiber reactivity.Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache · 2022Article
- Exploring the neurobiology of the premonitory phase of migraine preclinically - a role for hypothalamic kappa opioid receptors?The journal of headache and pain · 2022Article
- Increase pain sensitivity during the four phases of the migraine cycle in patients with episodic migraine.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2022Article
- Circadian Variation of Migraine Attack Onset Affects fMRI Brain Response to Fearful Faces.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
- Cerebro-Cerebellar Networks in Migraine Symptoms and Headache.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- A Comprehensive Review of Zavegepant as Abortive Treatment for Migraine.Health psychology research · 2022Review
- Hormonal influences in migraine - interactions of oestrogen, oxytocin and CGRP.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2021Review
- Migraine and stress-an exploratory cross-country study of external stress factors.BMC research notes · 2021Article
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1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
Due to the clinical picture and also based on early imaging data (Weiller et al. Nat Med 1:658-660, 1995), the brainstem and midbrain structures have been intensely discussed as possible driving or generating structures in migraine. The fact that the brainstem activation persisted after treatment makes it unlikely that this activation was only due to increased activity of the endogenous anti-nociceptive system. It was consequently (and somewhat simplifying) coined the "migraine generator". Since then several studies have focussed on this region when investigating episodic, but also chronic migraine. Denuelle et al. were the first to not only demonstrate significant activations in the midbrain and pons but also in the hypothalamus, which, just like the brainstem activation in the first study, persisted after headache relief with sumatriptan. Expanding these studies into f-MRI studies, refined the involvement of rostral parts of the pons in acute migraine attacks. However, they also focused on the preictal stage of NO-triggered and native human migraine attacks and suggested a predominant role of the hypothalamus shortly before the beginning of migraine headaches as well as alterations in hypothalamic functional connectivity. Additionally, changes in resting-state functional connectivity of the dorsal pons and the hypothalamus in interictal migraineurs has recently been found. The pathophysiology and genesis of migraine attacks is probably not just the result of one single "brainstem generator". Spontaneous oscillations of complex networks involving the hypothalamus, brainstem, and dopaminergic networks lead to changes in activity in certain subcortical and brainstem areas, thus changing susceptibility thresholds and not only starting but also terminating headache attacks.
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