Cognitive defects in migraine have been reported by several authors. These
findings however, are controversial. In this study we carried out an invest
igation on 14 patients with migraine with aura and 16 with migraine without
aura according to the International Headache Society criteria. They were s
ubmitted to a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests. The patien
ts were compared with a control group not significantly different as to age
, sex and education. Migraine subjects showed impaired neuropsychological p
erformances only on some cognitive tests. Both groups of patients did worse
than the control group on visuo-spatial memory tasks, while only migraineu
rs without aura showed significantly impaired verbal memory performances. T
he memory defects, both on visuo-spatial and on verbal cognitive tasks, cou
ld depend on an impaired recall mechanism. These memory difficulties seem r
elated to strategically and organizationally defective aspects of learning.