ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2020
Selective amplification of ipRGC signals accounts for interictal photophobia in migraine.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing migraine patients with multifocal pupillographic objective perimetry.BMC neurology · 2021Trial
- The Dark Side of Light: Spectral Variation in Post-Traumatic Photosensitivity and Its Functional Sequelae.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Simulated and natural changes in intraocular transparency selectively affect photoreceptor-specific pupil responses.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Topography of Photophobia: Perifoveal Sensitivity Associations in Glaucoma.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Linking Photophobia, Sleep Disturbances, and Migraine Chronicity: Evidence From a Retrospective Analysis.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Amplifying and ameliorating light avoidance in mice with photoreceptor targeting and calcitonin gene-related peptide sensitization.Headache · 2026Article
- Evening Chronotype Associates With Worse Physical and Mental Health and Headache-Related Disability Among Migraine Patients.Journal of sleep research · 2025Article
- Melanopsin-mediated image statistics from natural and human-made environments.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Impact of domestic white LED light on cognitive functions and amelioration of blue light blocking lens (BBL) on healthy adults.Neurobiology of sleep and circadian rhythms · 2025Article
- Preservation of Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (ipRGCs) in Late Adult Mice: Implications as a Potential Biomarker for Early Onset Ocular Degenerative Diseases.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2024Article
- Light as a Modulator of Non-Image-Forming Brain Functions-Positive and Negative Impacts of Increasing Light Availability.Clocks & sleep · 2023Review
- The Retinal Basis of Light Aversion in Neonatal Mice.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Article
- Article
- Reflexive Eye Closure in Response to Cone and Melanopsin Stimulation: A Study of Implicit Measures of Light Sensitivity in Migraine.Neurology · 2021Article
- Melanopic stimulation does not alter psychophysical threshold sensitivity for luminance flicker.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Photophobia in migraine: A symptom cluster?Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache · 2021Review
- Visual Evoked Potential Responses after Photostress in Migraine Patients and Their Correlations with Clinical Features.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
- Evaluation of electrophysiological changes in migraine with visual aura.Taiwan journal of ophthalmologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Second only to headache, photophobia is the most debilitating symptom reported by people with migraine. While the melanopsin-containing intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) are thought to play a role, how cone and melanopsin signals are integrated in this pathway to produce visual discomfort is poorly understood. We studied 60 people: 20 without headache and 20 each with interictal photophobia from migraine with or without visual aura. Participants viewed pulses of spectral change that selectively targeted melanopsin, the cones, or both and rated the degree of visual discomfort produced by these stimuli while we recorded pupil responses. We examined the data within a model that describes how cone and melanopsin signals are weighted and combined at the level of the retina and how this combined signal is transformed into a rating of discomfort or pupil response. Our results indicate that people with migraine do not differ from headache-free controls in the manner in which melanopsin and cone signals are combined. Instead, people with migraine demonstrate an enhanced response to integrated ipRGC signals for discomfort. This effect of migraine is selective for ratings of visual discomfort, in that an enhancement of pupil responses was not seen in the migraine group, nor were group differences found in surveys of other behaviors putatively linked to ipRGC function (chronotype, seasonal sensitivity, presence of a photic sneeze reflex). By revealing a dissociation in the amplification of discomfort vs. pupil response, our findings suggest a postretinal alteration in processing of ipRGC signals for photophobia in migraine.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.