Migraines and Auras

If you are among the one-third of migraine sufferers who experience aura before a migraine, you know how unsettling this phenomenon can be. Auras may include: visual disturbances (jagged lines, called fortification spectra, with bright spots or flashes); temporary, partial vision loss; numbness; and tingling sensations.

Scientists have speculated about the migraine aura for years but, until recently, they didn't have the tools to study brain activity during a migraine attack. Technology, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed on migraine patients while they are having a migraine, has allowed researchers to see waves of altered electrical activity spreading across the brain during an aura. Experts believe that different areas of the brain are stimulated as these waves cross the brain, causing the symptoms of aura. Researchers have theorized that the reason why only some people with migraine have auras is that their brain is overly sensitive to certain triggers.