symptoms > The Aura...

The migraine aura...

is comprised of focal neurological phenomena that precedes or accompany the attack. They appear gradually over 5 to 20 minutes and usually subside just before the headache begins. Symptoms of migraine aura are usually sensory in nature.

Visual aura is the most common of the neurological events. There is a disturbance of vision consisting usually of unformed flashes of white or rarely of multicolored lights (photopsia) or formations of dazzling zigzag lines (arranged like the battlements of a castle, hence the term fortification spectra or teichopsia). Some patients complain of blurred or shimmering or cloudy vision, as though they were looking through thick or smoked glass.

The somatosensory aura of migraine consists of digitolingual or cheiro-oral paresthesias, a feeling of pins-and-needles experienced in the hand and arm as well as in the ipsilateral nose-mouth area. Paresthesia migrate up the arm and then extend to involve the face, lips and tongue.