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Migraines and Cortical Spreading Depression

Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

Synonyms

Spreading depolarizations

Definition

Migraine is a headache disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of head pain, often throbbing and unilateral, sometimes preceded by neurological symptoms called aura. The known pathophysiologic mechanism suggest that this disorder should be considered as a neurovascular headache. Migraine is a highly disabling disorder according to the World Health Organization – the seventh most disabling in the world and the fourth most disabling among women.

Spreading depression (SD)is essentially a slow (about 3 mm/min = 50 μm/s) reaction–diffusion wave in gray matter tissue during which ion concentrations inside and outside the cells change by over one order of magnitude to a nearly complete elimination of transmembrane chemical gradients, i.e., a nearly complete release of Gibbs free energy with depressed neuronal activity. SD is accompanied by a pronounced hemodynamic response of increased regional cerebral blood flow (hyperemia) for about 2...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Markus A Dahlem

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  1. Markus A Dahlem
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Correspondence to Markus A Dahlem .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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Dahlem, M.A. (2014). Migraines and Cortical Spreading Depression. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_507-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_507-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Migraines and Cortical Spreading Depression
    Published:
    02 July 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_507-7

  2. Migraines and Cortical Spreading Depression
    Published:
    02 June 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_507-6

  3. Original

    Migraines and Cortical Spreading Depression
    Published:
    17 February 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_507-5

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