Delayed development of visual motion processing in childhood migraine

Introduction: Altered visual processing has been observed in adult migraineurs. But because visual processing has not been studied in paediatric cases, it is not known whether such visual system alterations are already present in early development. We therefore used a dynamic visual task to investigate motion detection threshold in paediatric migraine. Methods: Fourteen migraineurs and 21 controls participated in the study (age range: 8-17 years). The minimal percentage of coherently moving dot stimuli at which subjects were still able to detect coherent movement (absolute threshold) was determined using a random dot kinematogram paradigm. Results: Motion coherence detection threshold was higher in migraineurs (p < 0.05). This difference between groups was more pronounced at younger ages, but migraineurs seem to catch up with healthy controls over the years. Conclusions: Children with migraine exhibit a delayed development of visual motion processing. This might be a useful supplementary biomarker in paediatric migraine.