The impact of a migraine attack and its after-effects on perceptual organization, attention, and working memory

INTRODUCTION: Many migraine patients report cognitive complaints during the first hours or days following a migraine attack. The aim of this study was to assess whether and which cognitive (perceptual, attentional, or memory) processes are impaired during the first 48 hours after a migraine attack. METHODS: Three different cognitive tasks (global-local task, the attentional network task, and N-back task) were administered to 16 migraine patients (13 migraine without aura; mean age 58 years, 15 female) and 18 controls (59 years, 15 female), matched on age, gender, and educational level. Tasks were administered at three time points; during the first headache free day following a migraine attack (first session), 24 hours later (second session), and 12 days after the attack (third session). RESULTS: The attentional network and N-back tasks showed no significant differences between migraineurs and controls. In the global-local task, controls showed faster reaction times to global than to local stimuli, which is the standard global-precedence effect. This effect was absent in the migraineurs in all three sessions, especially if they used prophylaxis. CONCLUSION: Migraineurs had no impaired attentional or working-memory functioning in the 2 days after an attack. They did show impairments in the processing of global visual features compared with controls, both between and immediately after an attack.