Ricerc@Sapienza

Background: A short ketogenic diet (KD) treatment can prevent migraine attacks and correct excessive cortical response. Here, we aim to prove if the KD-related changes of cortical excitability are primarily due to cerebral cortex activity or are modulated by the brainstem. Methods: Through the stimulation of the right supraorbital division of the trigeminal nerve, we concurrently interictally recorded the nociceptive blink reflex (nBR) and the pain-related evoked potentials (PREP) in 18 migraineurs patients without aura before and after 1-month on KD, while in metabolic ketosis.

The quest toward a specific biomarker for migraine stands among the biggest challenges of the last 50 years. Electrophysiological techniques are particularly suitable to study the nervous system in human beings. They are noninvasive, riskless and quite easy to perform and have a temporal resolution that cannot be achieved with other methods.

Migraine is a complex polygenic disorder of the brain. Specific genes might be responsible for the condition due to the considerable clinical, epidemiological and evolutionary variability and interictal neurophysiological properties. Several studies have found that abnormal processing of a wide range of sensory stimuli is characteristic between attacks of patients that suffer from migraines. These neurophysiological abnormalities were significantly correlated between children that have migraines and their affected parents.