Functional connectivity changes in complex migraine aura: beyond the visual network

Although the majority of migraine with aura (MwA) patients experiences simple visual aura, a discrete percentage also reports somatosensory, dysphasic or motor symptoms (the so-called complex auras). The wide aura clinical spectrum led to investigate whether the heterogeneity of aura phenomenon could be subtended by different neural correlates, suggesting an increased visual cortical excitability in complex MwA. We aimed to explore whether complex MwA patients are characterized by more pronounced connectivity changes of the visual network and whether functional abnormalities may extend beyond the visual network encompassing also the sensorimotor network in complex MwA patients when compared to simple visual MwA patients.