Female versus male migraine: an event-related potential study of visual neurocognitive processing

BACKGROUND: Several studies have suggested cognitive deficits in migraineurs, and sex differences have also been observed in migraine, such as a higher prevalence in females. Nevertheless, little is known about gender-related differences in cognitive processing. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of gender on neurocognitive processing in migraineurs. METHODS: Altogether, 46 migraine patients without aura (23 females; mean age 32.848 years) during the interictal period and 46 age-matched healthy controls (23 females; mean age 32.652 years) were recruited. The emotional characteristics of participants were evaluated, and attentive processing was analyzed via event-related potential examinations using a three-stimulus visual oddball paradigm. RESULTS: We found that migraineurs suffered from emotional and visual cognitive processing abnormalities compared with healthy controls, including higher levels of anxiety and reduced P3 amplitude. These parameters were modulated by gender in migraine patients, but not in healthy participants. Our findings indicated that female patients seemed to be more anxious and have more severe impairment in attentive processing of visual stimuli than their male counterparts. The gender-related differences in migraineurs were further validated using event-related potential difference waveforms. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that migraine might have an additional influence on females and lead to more dysfunction in their interictal neurocognitive processing. Our findings provide evidence that a gender effect exists in migraineurs, which should be considered when designing experiments and exploring treatment approaches. The gender-related differences and underlying mechanisms deserve further investigation for patients with migraine. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s10194-019-0995-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.