A much less common type of migraine is migraine with aura. Aura is a temporary neurological symptom that can referred to a focal area of the brain. No aura symptoms last for more than 60 minutes, or if more than one aura symptom is present, each aura symptoms cannot last more than 60 minutes. Headaches, which may precede or begin with the aura, most follow within 60 minutes after the aura ends. No other diagnosis to explain the headache symptom.
Migraines are incredibly common.
Prevalence is defined as the number of people who experienced the disease during a specified time frame. This works out to over 25 million Americans with at least one migraine in the last year. The landmark work which determines what structures in the human cause head pain was performed by Dr. Wolff in the 1930's and 1940's. He took a series of 45 patients who required brain surgery and who could cooperate with testing during the surgery and carefully recorded the patients responses to various manipulations during the surgery. His book Headache and Other Head Pain published in 1948 makes for a fascinating reading on the early days of headache discovery.