ALTERNATE FINGER TAPPING TEST IN PATIENTS WITH MIGRAINE

Migraine patients are thought to show some cognitive dysfunction and s light structural abnormalities in the white matter of the brain, where as most patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are known to have numero us white matter lesions, often affecting the corpus callosum. To demon strate psychomotor dysfunction, an alternate finger tapping task (a-FI T) on a PC was administered to controls (n = 41), migraine patients (n = 25), and multiple sclerosis patients (n = 22). Five MS patients wit h secondary callosal atrophy detected by MRI were also investigated as a separate group, Significant slowing was demonstrated in migraine (P = 0.0005) and MS (P < 0.0001). The poorest lest results were found, i n patients with callosal atrophy. In summary, a-FTT on a PC is able to detect minimal psychomotor dysfunction in migraine.