Migraine is a common and disabling pain condition. Affective/cognitive processes, such as pain catastrophizing and emotional reactivity, often play a major role in migraine pain and disability. These processes may be just as important to target as the sensory aspect given their impact on outcomes and disability. Because of this cognitive/affective load that builds over time in migraine, we hypothesize A) migraineurs perceive affective pain processing differently than non-migraineurs and B) mind/body therapies that target these factors may be especially beneficial and may differentially impact the affective component of migraine pain. Evidence shows that meditation decreases affective (e.g., pain unpleasantness) over sensory (e.g., pain intensity) response to experimental pain and reduces pain by engaging brain regions important for cognitive and affective modulation of pain. By measuring both experimental and clinical pain, the study team will be able to test these hypotheses.
