Neurophysiological parameters and the tone of the autonomic nervous system in patients with migraine and epilepsy

Abstract

Aim: to study the bioelectric activity of the brain in relation to changes in the tone of the autonomic nervous system as assessed by heart rate variability (HRV) and evoked skin sympathetic potentials (ESSP) in patients with migraine and epilepsy.Materials and methods. We studied patients with epileptic foci in the left (group 1) or right (group 2) hemisphere with migraine attacks followed by epileptic seizures. We used EEG recording and EEG mapping programs and also determined HRV and ESSP.Results. We found that the subjects in group 1 had the normothymic and parasympathetic types of heart rate control, and the subjects in group 2 tended toward the sympathetic type of heart rate regulation. The spectral correlation EEG data indicated that the epileptiform activity in group 1 was more generalized than in group 2, which pointed to a more pronounced epileptogenesis in group 1. In this group, all pain scores were higher than those in group 2. In group 2 though, depression, anxiety, and emotional disorders were more pronounced than in group 1.Conclusion. The findings can be explained by a closer connection between the right hemisphere and the limbic system. This, in our view, underlies the more pronounced changes in the tone of the autonomic nervous system as assessed by the HRV and ESSP in patients with the right hemisphere epileptic activity and migraine attacks.

Keywords

• migraine
• epilepsy
• brain bioelectrical activity
• heart rate variability
• evoked skin sympathetic potential