Migraineurs may have worse facial recognition, visuospatial perception

This prospective study found that migraineurs performed worse on facial recognition and visuospatial perception tests, which could be due to functional differences in the brain or genetic changes.

The authors note that prosopagnosia‑impairment of facial recognition or face blindness‑is a rare dysfunction seen during the aura phase of migraine. To that end, they sought to evaluate face recognition, which had not previously been investigated in migraineurs, during the interictal period and its relationship with clinical features.

They recruited 74 migraineurs, with or without aura, and 37 healthy control subjects to perform the Benton face recognition test and the Judgment of Line Orientation test that measures complex visual perception.

Migraineurs showed significantly lower performance on both tests, indicating impaired visuospatial perception. These impairments were more pronounced in those without aura.

The authors conclude that the neurobiology of migraine might impact face recognition and other higher cortical visual functions interictally. They say that the underlying mechanisms should be investigated with neuroimaging studies and neuropsychological test batteries to find the localization of this presumably right hemispheric problem.