Crossed wires can be a real headache, especially for people with migraines, a new study shows.
The crisscrossing of nerve fibers in a part of the brain called the thalamus results in increased migraine pain after people are exposed to light, researchers report online January 10 in Nature Neuroscience. The study, which included blind people, reveals that vision isn’t needed for light to spur migraine pain, but that light-sensing cells in the retina do play a role.
Migraines affect about 12 percent of the U.S. population. Light makes the severe headaches even worse in at least 80 percent of migraine sufferers, but until now no one knew how light increased pain.
“There have been no theories as to why light in general makes headache pain worse,” says David Dodick, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz. “That’s what makes this so groundbreaking. It solves a mystery that has been around for many, many, many decades.”