Imaging of migraine and vestibular migraine

In the past few years, the application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to study patients with migraine has changed our view of migraine from primarily a vascular disorder to a neurovascular disease and currently to a central nervous system (CNS) disorder. Abnormal function of key brain areas and networks, mainly involved in pain processing, has been shown to occur in the brain of migraineurs. Numerous studies demonstrated also relevant and diffuse structural abnormalities of the brain gray (GM) and white matter (WM). What is now established is that migraine is not simply a disease related to pain occurring intermittently, but a process that over time either affects the brain or acts on a predisposed brain that may have an underlying difference in function or structure. Given the fact that criteria for the diagnosis of vestibular migraine have been proposed only recently and the relative rarity of this condition, only a few studies have applied neuroimaging techniques in patients suffering of vestibular migraine. However, the potential of the use of these techniques, in the context of the current knowledge on migraine, will be discussed.