
Headache Medicine  
  
ISSN 2178-7468 
  
e
-ISSN 2763-6178  
 
v.11 
  
Supplement 
  
p. 24 
 
October 2020.
24
ASAA
DOI: 10.48208/HeadacheMed.2020.Supplement.24
Maciel, N.; Carvalho, G.; Pinheiro, C.; van Emmerik, R.; Dach, F.;Moraes, R.; Grossi,D.
Headache Medicine
Motor control of migraine patients under higher levels of sound
Nicoly Maciel, Gabriela Carvalho, Carina Pinheiro, Richard van Emmerik, Fabíola Dach, Renato Moraes, Débora Grossi
Instituição de fomento: FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) e CAPES (Coordenação de 
Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior)
Universidade de São Paulo
Introduction
Under a typical sound environment context, individuals with migraine showed balance control decits on a series of functional activities 
as compared to healthy controls, which helps to explain why migraineurs report more falls than controls. However, it is not stablished, 
the effects of intensity sound in migraine patients during functional tasks. Based on the hypersensitivity to sound in people with migraine, 
not only during the migraine attack but also in the interictal period, the exposure to loud sound may have an impact on motor control in 
this population. This study aimed to investigate the levels of discomfort induced by sound in patients with migraine and healthy controls 
and to evaluate the anticipatory control with increasing levels of auditory disturbance. 
Methods
This cross-sectional study evaluated 51 women with migraine and 21 healthy women. They performed 3 different walking tasks: crossing 
an obstacle, steppingup and stepping-down a curb, in a control situation and with a loud sound condition (≅ 90 dBa). The Research 
Ethics Committee approved this study (process HCRP nº 16210/2015). It was used t-tests, Spearman tests, and repeated- measures mixed 
ANOVA, alpha=5%. 
Results
Migraine  group  presented  higher  discomfort  induced  by  sound  (p=0.001).  In  the  obstacle  task  in  the  ambient  condition,  migraine 
group had greater step width than control group (p=0.038). For stepup task, there were main effects of condition for both leading limb 
(F1,96=7.23, p=0.001) and trailing limb (F1,98=9.90, p<0.00001) in horizontal distances. For both variables, these distances increased 
for sound (p=0.002 and p<0.00001) compared to ambient condition. For step- down, there were no group main effects or group by 
condition interactions for any variable.
Conclusion
Migraine is related to higher discomfort induced by sound compared to controls. There was no difference between groups for the 
ambient condition, except for the step width in the obstacle task. There was an effect of the sound increment in both groups on the 
variable horizontal distance in the step-up task, the inadequate foot placement in relation to the obstacle/curb increases the risk of falls, 
so the sound increment may increase the risk falls in migraine and healthy individuals during some tasks. Although the discomfort induced 
by sound was higher for the migraine group, the increment in these stimuli did not make a difference between groups when walking on 
uneven terrains.
Keywords: 
Headache, Walking, Phonophobia