Cerebral Hemodynamic Reactivity Measured by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in Migraineurs

Brain hemodynamic responses (BHR) of healthy subjects and migraineurs performing a breath holding task are measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) method. The response curves are deconvolved from a rectangular input function to yield the impulse response (IR) function of BHR which was then modeled by a summation of three gaussians. Our results show that the amplitude coefficients estimated from IR of BHRs are approximately 350% and the dispersion coefficients 145% higher for healthy subjects. These results confirm the findings of several other researchers where a decrease in cerebral blood flow has been shown for migraineurs during breath holding tasks