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Discussion of the Literature Impact on Gender The ophthalmology group still supports the idea that migraines typically affect females more than males. While the new articles for discussion were not specific as to which was more common, the other articles we have found for our studies show that women are more affected than males. It is important that researchers can discover why women are more prone to these migraine headaches than men. The answer to this question could help females (and males) everywhere solve their migraine headaches. Impact on Culture and Ethnicity According to the research conducted, the Ophthalmology research team concludes that ethical and cultural variations can be found in regards to migraine headaches. According to an article written by Scher, Lipton, and Stewart (2000), North American and European people suffer more frequently from migraine headaches. There are fewer occurrences of migraine headaches in people living in the countries of Africa and Asia than those that occur in Caucasians. This is true of Africans and Asians living in the United States as well. Perception of light and colors experienced by a person may contribute to how intensely a person experiences a migraine headache, according to an article by De Marinis, Rinalduzzi, and Accornero (2007). Each country experiences a different amount of sunlight depending on location and different amount of colors in decorations and scenery depending on the culture of each town or village. If both these things are true, it is the belief of the research team that an individual?s location can predispose them to a migraine headache. For example, a person having a migraine headache who is exposed to bright sunlight while living in the Sahara desert is more likely to experience a severely painful and more intense migraine headache than a person having a migraine headache who is exposed to little or no sunlight in Alaska. This would be due to the visual stimuli in the Sahara. Bigal, M.E., Hetherington, H., Pan, J., Tsang, A., Grosberg, B., Avdievich, N., Friedman, B., Lipton, R.B. (2008). Occipital levels of GABA are related to severe headaches in migraine. Neurology 70(22), 2078-9. Braswell, R. (2008). Headache, migraine. Retrieved February 11th, 2010 from the E-Medicine Web site: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1214886-overview Friedman, D.I., Der Ver Dye, T. (2009). Migraine and the enviornment. Headache: The Journal of Head & Face Pain, 49(6), 941-952. Harle, D., Shepherd, A., & Evans, B. (2006). Visual stimuli are common triggers of migraine and are associated with pattern glare. Headache: The Journal of Head & Face Pain, 46(9), 1431-1440. Harle, D. E., Wolffsohn, J. S., & Evans, B. (2005). The Pupillary Light Reflex in Migraine. Ophthalmology Physiology Opt., 240-245. Hemianopsia (2009) Retrieved February 17, 2010 from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Web Site: http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/anomalies/Hemianopsia.htm. Main, A., Vlachonikolis, I., & Dowson, A. (2000). The wavelength of light causing photophobia in migraine and tension-type headache between attacks. Headache: The Journal of Head & Face Pain, 40(3), 194-199. Plant, G. (1986). The fortification spectra of migraine. British Medical Journal 293(20-27), 1613-7. Speer, F. (1975). The Bela Schick memorial lecture. The many facets of migraine. Ann Allergy, 34(5), 273-85.