Migraine is a complex disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of headache, and is one of the most prevalent and disabling neurological disorders. A key feature of migraine is that various factors can trigger an attack, and this phenomenon provides a unique opportunity to investigate disease mechanisms by experimentally inducing migraine attacks. In this Review, we summarize the existing experimental models of migraine in humans, including those that exploit nitric oxide, histamine, neuropeptide and prostaglandin signalling. We describe the development and use of these models in the discovery of molecular pathways that are responsible for initiation of migraine attacks. Combining experimental human models with advanced imaging techniques might help to identify biomarkers of migraine, and in the ongoing search for new and better migraine treatments, human models will have a key role in the discovery of future targets for more-specific and more-effective mechanism-based antimigraine drugs.

偏头痛是一种以头痛反复发作为特征的复杂疾病，是最普遍和最致残的神经系统疾病之一。偏头痛的关键特征是各种因素均可触发发作，而这种现象为通过实验性诱导偏头痛发作研究疾病机制提供了独特的机会。在这篇综述中，我们总结了人类偏头痛的现有实验模型，包括利用一氧化氮，组胺，神经肽和前列腺素信号转导的模型。我们在负责偏头痛发作的分子途径的发现中描述了这些模型的开发和使用。将实验人体模型与先进的成像技术结合起来，可能有助于识别偏头痛的生物标志物，