Quantitative Oculomotor Abnormalities in Episodic and Chronic Migraine: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study
- 1Department of Neurology, Guangdong Neuroscience Institute, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, People’s Republic of China
- 2State Key Laboratory of Neurology and Oncology Drug Development, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 325035, People’s Republic of China
- 3Department of Emergency Medicine, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, People’s Republic of China
Abstract
Background: Migraine is a primary headache disorder accompanied by potential oculomotor dysfunction, yet the differences in eye movement performance between episodic migraine (EM) and chronic migraine (CM) remain insufficiently clarified. This study aimed to compare clinical headache-related indicators and quantitative oculomotor task parameters among healthy controls, total migraine patients, EM and CM subgroups, and explore characteristic oculomotor differences between EM and CM.
Methods: This study adopted a cross-sectional design. A total of 242 patients with migraine and 47 healthy controls were included. Of the patients with migraine, 199 were classified as having episodic migraine and 41 as having chronic migraine; two could not be classified because of missing headache-frequency data. Demographic and clinical data including sex, age, Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6) and Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) scores were collected. All participants completed a battery of quantitative oculomotor paradigms, including prosaccade, gap saccade, overlap saccade, antisaccade, memory-guided saccade and smooth pursuit tasks. Group differences were primarily evaluated using independent-samples t tests, with Welch’s correction applied when variances were unequal. Effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals were reported, and Mann–Whitney U-tests were performed as sensitivity analyses.; P < 0.05 was defined as statistically significant. Given the exploratory nature of the analyses, no adjustment for multiple comparisons was applied.
Results: Sex and age showed no intergroup differences (P>0.05). CM had higher HIT-6 and MIDAS scores than EM (P<0.05). Compared with controls, patients with migraine had lower antisaccade peak velocity (mean difference, −129.95 °/s; 95% CI, −210.74 to −49.17; Cohen’s d=0.50), whereas the difference in antisaccade error rate was not robust in the sensitivity analysis. Compared with EM, CM showed abnormalities in saccade latency, completion time, velocity, memory-guided saccade accuracy, and inhibition failures, with absolute Cohen’s d values ranging from 0.35 to 0.58.
Conclusion: Migraine patients manifest impaired inhibitory control during antisaccade execution compared with healthy individuals. Distinct quantitative oculomotor abnormalities including prolonged saccade latency, reduced saccadic velocity, decreased memory-guided saccade accuracy and elevated inhibitory failure frequency are prominent in CM rather than EM. Quantitative oculomotor assessments measures may represent candidate correlates of migraine subtype, but these exploratory findings require validation in larger, independent cohorts.
Related
- Prevalence and determinants of metabolic abnormalities among adult tuberculosis patients at Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia: an institution-based comparative cross-sectional study.
- Prevalence of Mild Autonomous Cortisol Secretion Among Patients With Adrenal Incidentaloma and Its Association With Metabolic Abnormalities: A Hospital-Based, Analytical, Cross-Sectional Study
- Hormonal Profile Abnormalities Among Oligozoospermic and Azoospermic Men With Infertility: A Cross-Sectional Study
- COVID-19 Vaccination and the Risk of Migraine Chronification: A Comparative Cohort Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Patients With Episodic Migraine.
- Comparison of Neurodynamic Test Response Between Patients with Frequent Episodic Tension-Type Headache and Migraine: An Exploratory Comparative Study
BibTeX
@article{li2026quantitative,
title = {{Quantitative Oculomotor Abnormalities in Episodic and Chronic Migraine: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study}},
author = {Yan Li and Ziqi Gao and Chuangzhi Zhu and Liya Qiu and Zhexian Yang and Tingyue Du and Mengfei Cai and Yuhu Zhang},
journal = {Journal of Pain Research},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.2147/jpr.s635130},
url = {https://doi.org/10.2147/jpr.s635130},
note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Quantitative Oculomotor Abnormalities in Episodic and Chronic Migraine: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study
AU - Yan Li
AU - Ziqi Gao
AU - Chuangzhi Zhu
AU - Liya Qiu
AU - Zhexian Yang
AU - Tingyue Du
AU - Mengfei Cai
AU - Yuhu Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/27
JO - Journal of Pain Research
DO - 10.2147/jpr.s635130
UR - https://doi.org/10.2147/jpr.s635130
AB - Background: Migraine is a primary headache disorder accompanied by potential oculomotor dysfunction, yet the differences in eye movement performance between episodic migraine (EM) and chronic migraine (CM) remain insufficiently clarified. This study aimed to compare clinical headache-related indicators and quantitative oculomotor task parameters among healthy controls, total migraine patients, EM and CM subgroups, and explore characteristic oculomotor differences between EM and CM. Methods: This study adopted a cross-sectional design. A total of 242 patients with migraine and 47 healthy controls were included. Of the patients with migraine, 199 were classified as having episodic migraine and 41 as having chronic migraine; two could not be classified because of missing headache-frequency data. Demographic and clinical data including sex, age, Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6) and Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) scores were collected. All participants completed a battery of quantitative oculomotor paradigms, including prosaccade, gap saccade, overlap saccade, antisaccade, memory-guided saccade and smooth pursuit tasks. Group differences were primarily evaluated using independent-samples t tests, with Welch’s correction applied when variances were unequal. Effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals were reported, and Mann–Whitney U-tests were performed as sensitivity analyses.; P < 0.05 was defined as statistically significant. Given the exploratory nature of the analyses, no adjustment for multiple comparisons was applied. Results: Sex and age showed no intergroup differences (P>0.05). CM had higher HIT-6 and MIDAS scores than EM (P<0.05). Compared with controls, patients with migraine had lower antisaccade peak velocity (mean difference, −129.95 °/s; 95% CI, −210.74 to −49.17; Cohen’s d=0.50), whereas the difference in antisaccade error rate was not robust in the sensitivity analysis. Compared with EM, CM showed abnormalities in saccade latency, completion time, velocity, memory-guided saccade accuracy, and inhibition failures, with absolute Cohen’s d values ranging from 0.35 to 0.58. Conclusion: Migraine patients manifest impaired inhibitory control during antisaccade execution compared with healthy individuals. Distinct quantitative oculomotor abnormalities including prolonged saccade latency, reduced saccadic velocity, decreased memory-guided saccade accuracy and elevated inhibitory failure frequency are prominent in CM rather than EM. Quantitative oculomotor assessments measures may represent candidate correlates of migraine subtype, but these exploratory findings require validation in larger, independent cohorts.
SN - 1178-7090
ER -