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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Headache and Neurogenic Pain
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1495423
This article is part of the Research Topic Expanding the Paradigm of the Management of Headaches: Integrated Multidisciplinary Perspectives from Bench to Bedside View all 10 articles
Coordinates-based meta-analysis for vestibular migraine and the underlying mechanisms behind it
Provisionally accepted- First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
Background: Vestibular migraine (VM) is a leading cause of recurrent vertigo episodes.Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) is a reliable technique to analyze structural changes, particularly in gray matter (GM) volume, across various neurological conditions.Despite the growing amount of neuroimaging data in recent decades, a comprehensive review of GM alterations in VM remains lacking.We conducted a systematic review of three English-language databases (PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science) and two Chinese-language databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang) to evaluate existing neuroimaging data on GM volume in VM patients. A coordinate-based meta-analysis (CBMA) was performed using the latest algorithm, seed-based d mapping with permutation of subject images (SDM-PSI), to identify brain alterations across individual studies.Results: Five studies (103 VM patients, 107 HCs) were included. The CBMA demonstrated a significant reduction in GM volume in VM patients compared to HCs, with peak convergence in the left rolandic operculum (SDM-Z = -3.68, p-corrected = 0.004, voxels = 629; Brodmann area 48), extending to the posterior insula.Heterogeneity across studies was low (I² = 19.35%), and no publication bias was detected (Egger's test: p = 0.826).This meta-analysis confirms reliable GM volume alterations in the posterior insula-operculum region of VM patients. Longitudinal studies with standardized imaging protocols are needed to clarify whether these changes are causes or consequences of VM.
Keywords: coordinate-based meta-analysis, gray matter, vestibular migraine, Voxelbased morphometry, insula
Received: 12 Sep 2024; Accepted: 07 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fan, Li, Dong and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Liang Dong, First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
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