Self-regulation of slow cortical potentials in children with migraine: An exploratory study

Migraine patients are characterized by increased amplitudes of slow cortica l potentials (SCPs), representing pronounced excitability of cortical netwo rks. The present study investigated the efficiency of biofeedback training of SCPs in young migraineurs. Ten children suffering from migraine without aura participated in 10 feedback sessions. They were compared with 10 healt hy children for regulation abilities of cortical negativity and with 10 mig raineurs from the waiting list for clinical efficacy. During the first two sessions, the migraine children were characterised by lacking ability to co ntrol cortical negativity, especially during transfer trials, compared with healthy controls. However there was no difference following 10 sessions of training. Feedback training was accompanied by significant reduction of co rtical excitability. This was probably responsible for the clinical efficac y of the training; a significant reduction of days with migraine and other headache parameters was observed. Ir is suggested that normalization of the threshold regulation of cortical excitability during feedback training may result in clinical improvement.