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Differential fMRI neural synchrony associated with migraine during emotionally arousing naturalistic stimuli

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Keva Klamer¹ (klamer@uleth.ca), Joshua Craig¹, Christina Haines¹, KiAnna Sullivan¹, Peter Seres², Chelsea Ekstrand¹; ¹University of Lethbridge, ²University of Alberta

Migraine is a common neurological disorder that impacts approximately 12% of the population and is characterized by moderate to severe headaches, nausea, mood changes, and fatigue. It impacts lower-level visual and auditory processing, causing hypersensitivities that lead to heightened audiovisual multisensory integration. However, the impact of migraine on the processing of complex, audiovisual stimuli remains unclear. Additionally, migraine may induce hypersensitivities to emotional arousal and valence, though the relative significance of these factors remains unknown. The current study seeks to identify how migraine impacts synchronous neural processing of complex audiovisual stimuli and how this differs based on the emotional arousal and valence of the stimulus. We collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 17 migraineurs and 26 healthy controls while they viewed three audiovisual films (high arousal, positive valence; high arousal, negative valence; low arousal, neutral valence). Intersubject correlation analysis was used to identify shared time-locked brain activity across participants. In response to high arousal emotional stimuli, the migraine group showed greater neural synchrony in regions associated with multisensory integration, including the posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG). In response to the negative valence film, the migraine group had heightened neural synchrony in the pSTG, bilateral cuneus and right angular gyrus. These findings suggest that migraine influences processing of naturalistic stimuli that varies based on emotional arousal and valence. Specifically, high arousal may drive greater synchrony in multisensory integration regions, while negative valence may enhance visual hypersensitivities. This research highlights how emotional stimuli drive distinct neural processing patterns in migraine.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions