Cognition not 'hurt' by migraines

PARIS, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Lesions in the brain linked to migraine do not seem to affect cognitive function, French and Chinese researchers found.

Lead author Tobias Kurth of Paris INSERM, Universite Paris and Boston's Harvard Medical School and colleagues, using magnetic resonance imaging, found the brains of migraine sufferers have more lesions of the brain microvessels than the rest of the population.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, found brain scans for those with severe headaches confirm they are twice as likely to have a large quantity of microvascular brain lesions as subjects without headaches.

However, the researchers could not find evidence of cognitive harm and concluded there was no observable negative consequences of migraine on the brain.

"This is a very reassuring result for the many people who suffer from migraine," Kurth says in a statement. "In spite of the increased presence of lesions of the brain microvessels, this disorder does not increase the risk of cognitive decline."

Kurth and colleagues monitored individuals age 65 and older from the Nantes area in France during a 10-year period. Cerebral magnetic resonance imaging was performed on more than 800 of the participants.