Neurotrophins as neurobiological correlates of analytic visual information processing and migraine

Summary. The present study aims to clarify whether salivary and serum nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels might reflect the cognitive processing style of healthy subjects and migraine sufferers. All subjects underwent the recording of visual evoked potentials (VEP) to evaluate visual habituation. Dosing of plasmatic and salivary levels of NGF and BDNF was performed as well. Our research provides insights into the role of neurotrophins and the analytic style of processing visual information in pain mechanisms, potentially identifying them as targets for new integrated therapeutic strategies, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological, for primary headaches.