Distinct salience network dynamics between the imagery and the experience of migraine attacks

Motivation: Spontaneous migraine attacks are challenging to study and most research is performed during the interictal phase. Goal(s): A pain imagery task may be able to elicit the migraine experience, even during the symptom-free phase, particularly impacting the salience network, which is linked to processing stimuli. Approach: The dynamics of the salience network were studied across two phases of the migraine cycle, during and outside the migraine attack, and compared to matching healthy controls. Results: Compared to controls, we observed lower mean lifetime for the salience network in patients during a pain imagery task in the interictal phase, but not during interictal/ictal resting state. Impact: We found salience network dynamics alterations in migraine patients while performing an fMRI pain imagery task. These are, however, not observed during the occurrence of a migraine attack, which is likely more complex due to other neuronal and vascular changes.