Migraines, recurrent throbbing headaches that are typically accompanied by nausea and disturbed vision, affect fifteen percent of the world’s population (Migraine). They are particularly sensitive to any form of sound, movement, or light. Light sensitivity, otherwise known as photophobia, is often a side effect of migraines experienced by about eighty percent of migraineurs (Noseda et al 2016). “The inability to endure light can be disabling,” as said by Rami Burstein, academic director of the Comprehensive Headache Center at Beth Israel Deaconess (Harvard 2016), and “renders migraineurs dysfunctional as they are forced to halt fundamental daily tasks to seek the comfort of darkness,” (Noseda et al. 2016). Six years ago, Burstein and his colleges
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Each subject was exposed to varying intensities of white, blue, green, amber, and red lights delivered at a narrow band of wavelengths, studying the effects the different colors had on the: “(i) intensity of their headache; (ii) throbbing; (iii) muscle tenderness; and (iv) cephalic areas affected by the pain,” (Noseda et al. 2016). To establish a baseline, participants were in a dimly lit room for twenty minutes. Each light would remain on for three minutes and participants were asked to rate the headaches’ intensity, describe the locations of their headaches, and if their heads throbbed. They would again sit in darkness until their migraine returned to its original baseline. This process was repeated with each colored light, monitored through an ERG for the electrical signals generated in the retina and through an EEG for the electrical signals generated by the cortex and …show more content…
It can somewhat be related to brain adaptions in people blind since infancy, discussed in Kalat’s text. Kalat states that people who are born blind utilize their occipital lobe, regardless of their inability to see, for tasks involving touch or hearing. In an experiment on those born blind, researchers temporarily inactivated their occipital lobes, resulting in less accurate readings of Braille letters (Kalat 2016). Even though they could not see anything from the beginning, their brains adapted and used the occipital lobe for touch. In blind migraine sufferers, their cones and rods could feel the additional pain caused by blue lights just as anyone with the ability to see would, even though their cones and rods were thought to be inactive (Noseda 2016). These findings fuel the investigation of what our cones and rods are capable
Each subject was exposed to varying intensities of white, blue, green, amber, and red lights delivered at a narrow band of wavelengths, studying the effects the different colors had on the: “(i) intensity of their headache; (ii) throbbing; (iii) muscle tenderness; and (iv) cephalic areas affected by the pain,” (Noseda et al. 2016). To establish a baseline, participants were in a dimly lit room for twenty minutes. Each light would remain on for three minutes and participants were asked to rate the headaches’ intensity, describe the locations of their headaches, and if their heads throbbed. They would again sit in darkness until their migraine returned to its original baseline. This process was repeated with each colored light, monitored through an ERG for the electrical signals generated in the retina and through an EEG for the electrical signals generated by the cortex and …show more content…
It can somewhat be related to brain adaptions in people blind since infancy, discussed in Kalat’s text. Kalat states that people who are born blind utilize their occipital lobe, regardless of their inability to see, for tasks involving touch or hearing. In an experiment on those born blind, researchers temporarily inactivated their occipital lobes, resulting in less accurate readings of Braille letters (Kalat 2016). Even though they could not see anything from the beginning, their brains adapted and used the occipital lobe for touch. In blind migraine sufferers, their cones and rods could feel the additional pain caused by blue lights just as anyone with the ability to see would, even though their cones and rods were thought to be inactive (Noseda 2016). These findings fuel the investigation of what our cones and rods are capable