What type of visual disturbance qualifies as a visual aura?

Visual aura should be a time-limited neurologic event (5 minutes to 60 minutes) with or without migraine headache. It can contain positive (e.g., flashes of light) and/or negative (e.g., scotoma) visual phenomena. It is often toward one side of the visual field but is binocular (comes from both eyes). There is often an evolution of symptoms. The ICHD-3 criteria can be quite helpful here.

Diagnostic Criteria:

• At least two attacks fulfilling criteria B and C
• One or more of the following fully rev...

As a neurologist, my definition of migraine aura is that it concerns transient focal neurological symptoms. This means that the symptoms are neurological, localizable, and transient. If they are not transient and we still think of them as migraine aura, we call them migraine aura status.

Although it is called aura, the symptoms do not have to precede a migraine headache. They can occur during or afterward and can also occur with other than migraine headaches, that is, headaches that we would ordi...