SPATIAL FREQUENCY CONTENT IN MIGRAINE ART

Abstract

Patients with migraine are susceptible to visual discomfort. Some painters who suffer from migraine express their migraine experience and visual discomfort through their paintings, which we refer to as migraine art. Several famous painters (e.g., Picasso) also have been reported to suffer from migraine; therefore, we refer to their paintings as “possible-migraine art.” Although paintings with excessive energy at mid-spatial frequencies are uncomfortable to view, it remains unknown whether migraine art and possible-migraine art contain spatial characteristics that contribute to visual discomfort. We performed a spatial-frequency analysis on migraine art, possible-migraine art, and non-migraine art images. The results revealed that migraine art contains more energy at mid-spatial frequencies than non-migraine art. Possible-migraine art also contains this spectral characteristic. We propose that painters who suffer from migraine may utilize rather than avoid spatial characteristics that contribute to visual discomfort.