Migraine

Cochlear Dysfunction Apparent in Migraineurs

This is an article of interest to both us migraineurs and my Meniere's compatriots.

Rain Gem found this article and I snitched it from Nutmegan's blog...

It seems, if I'm reading this terrifically technical article correctly AND PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M NOT, that the cochleas of migraineurs appear to malfunction and they don't handle the signals from certain sound frequencies correctly; therefore, migraineurs can't handle noisy environments because our brains continue to respond to upper hertz frequencies when the control groups did not and all our cochleas' and our cerebral cortex's faults. Our poor brains don't know what to do so they throw us into a migraine attack to stop the auditory sensory overload.

To wit, from the article:

quote:

Among other findings were that in controls, the mean amplitudes of transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions showed a significant decrease in response to contralateral sound stimulus. However, this was not the case in the migraineurs.

"The data," continued Dr. Bolay, "provide evidence for subclinical nervous system abnormality that is widely distributed from the cerebral cortex to the neuromuscular junction, and would probably be a characteristic underlying susceptibility to migraine attacks."

"I think," she concluded, that "dysfunctional central mechanisms modulating the cochlear activity demonstrate another aspect of the migrainous brain in handling sensory signals."

And now, from the beginning of the article:

quote:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 11 - Otoacoustic emission testing, which allows monitoring of minute changes in cochlear status, shows dysfunction of cochlea and cochlear efferents in patients with migraine, Turkish researchers report in the April issue of Cephalalgia.

"We unraveled a mechanism that leads to problems with discrimination of tones and lateralization of sound, particularly in a noisy environment, in patients with migraine," lead investigator Dr. Hayrunnisa Bolay told Reuters Health.

"This novel finding," she added, "could be one of the mechanisms underlying increased sensitivity and discomfort to auditory stimuli in migraineurs."

Dr. Bolay and colleagues at Gazi University Hospitals, Ankara, conducted otoacoustic emission and other testing in both ears of 53 patients with migraine and 41 controls. Both groups showed normal distortion product otoacoustic emission functioning of the inner ear at frequencies between 1 and 4kHz.

I guess they're teasing out down to specifics and nailing down just how poorly we do in that sort of environment.

YAY FOR INCREASED MIGRAINE RESEARCH!! Even though it was done in Turkey...

I believe the impact is that we migraine and MAV sufferers have yet more validation that they are neurological disorders. It wouldn't surprise me if there is a Meniere's impact to this too. Noisy environments are HUGE triggers for Meniere's vertigo and tinnitus symptoms.

*doing her best Beatles in the Bahamas impression* "Help, I need somebody..."

umm Medieval? HOW did you read that article without GETTING a migraine?! Wow I have read a lot of complicated medical text, especially in studying t-cells and the immune system for my son, amongst other things, but WOW that article uses a lot of big words! course Im a bit prodromey right now and brain foggy.. but still! Im impressed ya got that much out of it!

It is very interesting though, and I like your thinking that it shows yet again that it is a neurological disease!

Looking forward to more insite from others on this!


Tawsha

This explains a lot of things for me- one of them being one of the reasons I had to leave my last work environment was because there was a piano being played all day long nearby in addition to music over the loudspeaker. Needless to say, it seemed to bother me much more than my co-workers, and my migraines were much more frequent. Thanks for the info!
Valerie

MW, Thanks for bringing this article to our attention. It is extremely interesting to me b/c of my background. I think your description of the article is excellent.

It is interesting to note what the author said, "I think that dysfunctional central mechanisms modulating the cochlear activity demonstrate another aspect of the migrainous brain handling sensory signals."

It shows that we have difficulty dealing with sensory signals.

I feel as though I am sensitive to sounds all the time. I am not able to attend church because the amplification of the music and sermon is too loud for me. I often wear earplugs when we go out to eat. And they are a necessity in any loud place such as a mall.

I listen to the free podcast "Headway on Migraine Headaches" found HERE. On "Headway Episode #8 Multiple Mechanisms of Migraine," Dr. K.M. Welch said,

quote:

Hyper-excitability of the cerebral cortex forms the basis of migraine susceptibility. And it is this susceptibility in turn which is the underlying cause of migraine. You might say the migraine brain is a hyper-excitable brain.

I'm not sure that this exactly fits with the topic of cochlear dysfunction, but it does speak to the topic of our brains being hyper-excitable and that leading to migraines.

Thanks again, MW, for bringing this up!

Kelly

Hey lady - snitch away! I did just talk about this in my blog yesterday. Read my post Here if you wanna. I read the article in mid-April when Rain Gem first reported on it. All in all, I think it's so exciting when medical research makes some sense of our weird experiences.

Some months ago I started a thread here about whether over-stimulation can be a trigger. I think I get a kind of sensory overload from visual stimuli as well, but this article helped me understand that what I call over-stimulation is often just - too much noise! Or to be more accurate, too many noises!

MW you've done a better job of parsing out the medical stuff than I did - thanks for helping me understand it even more.

Ever since Rachel was about 2 (15 years ago), and getting very verbal, I have had this phenomenon of when more than one person is talking, especially if there's other noise as well, like the radio, all I hear is noise - I can't sort out the separate sounds. I can't understand a word anyone is saying. And I feel like my head is going to explode. My ADHD family all talk at once, frequently, and need lots of background noise for stimulation. Sometimes I have to say "stop before my head essplode!" (You should hear Adam say in his best sad baby-talk voice "Oh, no, Mommy head essplode!" - running joke.)

But that feeling of frantic confusion and inability to process progressed over the years into a clear migraine trigger. At first I just felt like I was going to go nuts, now I actually have to leave if there are too many different sounds, or a migraine will come. Makes parties and such very hard.

- Megs

AT LAST!

When I was a toddler, I had measles, mumps and pneumonia within six weeks. The high fevers left me with weak permanent teeth and damaged cochlea.

I have a poor sense of balance (on my own 2 feet, but not on horseback) and "nondifferentiated hearing." That means I can't sort out individual sounds/conversations in a noisy room.

And, yes, sounds are definitely a migraine trigger. I also have a deefinite audio aura. It's like a cross between a rain stick and a scifi movie "spooky sound" when my eyes move. (Does anybody else "hear" their eyes move?)

On top of this, I have very acute hearing, so things get very painful very quickly. Couple that with DH's having the TV or radio up loud (for his hearing loss), and y'all can see why I spend a lot of time with earplugs in my ears.

Now I have more proof I'm not as crazy as I thought I was!

Rebecca

Hey y'all--my Meniere's buds have done some work on this article too here:

Meniere's Board


Edit: once I get a good handle on this, I'll get everyone's permission who has helped and get permission to reprint the article, and Rain Gem and Megs, maybe we three can go in together and do coordinating columns? Each take an aspect that affects us personally?

Megs, your exploding head is hysterical...would you and Rain Gem want to do the Migraine side of this maybe?

Maybe I could interview jim1884again on the Meniere's side. He's a retired-on-disability psychologist with Meniere's.

That's a fascinating discussion - cool that someone emailed Dr. Bolay - I'd be very happy to do co-ordinating columns.

All that discussion on the Meniere's Board leads me to a little slogan I've been working on - "No, I'm not crazy. My brain just doesn't work right." (Joking...)

quote:

Originally posted by nutmegan:
That's a fascinating discussion - cool that someone emailed Dr. Bolay - I'd be very happy to do co-ordinating columns.

COOL! I'll get with you later!

quote:

Originally posted by nutmegan:
All that discussion on the Meniere's Board leads me to a little slogan I've been working on - "No, I'm not crazy. My brain just doesn't work right." (Joking...)

LOL!!

Thank you for distilling the article down into something I could read without developing a full-blown migraine.

That research is so fascinating! It feels validating to see science reinforcing our experiences.

Hey, check out the response my bud So Cal Cyclist got from her ENT and the questions my bud Jim had about it.

Click on the link above.

So far, don't think she's heard from the author of the article.

Getting more and more interesting, eh?

I'm just catching up on this - this research really is fascinating, and validating. Big thanks to your Meniere's buds for the insight and research on the research so I could understand the article!

This is so amazing - I know people have said it before, but it is so affirming to have my personal experience confirmed like this. MW's Meniere's buddy's ENT explained:

quote:

Some people with active migraine can have additional hearing problems involving the inability to suppress this OES activity. An example of this would be being in a room full of people and trying to hear the conversation of the people next to you. All noise in the room is at the same level. There is no ability to suppress the background noise to hear the person next to you.

My ENT PA went on to say that even with testing and finding out if you have the same dysfunction there isn't anything that can be done about it. The only thing that can be provided is education and better understanding. Hearing aids currently do not have the technology neccessary to provide the focused amplification needed to help people with this type of disfunction.

This is exactly my experience! I know I'm not alone in this. I read it to Danny and said, "See, I'm not crazy!"

He said, "I know you're not crazy I just have a hard time remembering because my own processing is so different."

- Megs

Hey-hey-hey!

The AMAZING folks at the Meniere's board that I participate in have got an update on this article:

Page 2 with the update--scroll down

The Meniere's people who are analyzing this are two smart ones, if I may say. Many thanks for their efforts. I most assuredly couldn't do better.

Megs--may be another couple of weeks before I'm up to organizing my thoughts on the blog articles, but wow won't they be something?

MW, many many thanks to your Meniere's buds for checking into this! Very fascinating indeed, and backs up my personal experience. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to blog about it.