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THE headaches that accompany certain intracranial pathologies (such as meningitis, subarachnoid haemorrhage and tumour) have been considered to result from mechanical or chemical stimulation of pain-sensitive structures of the intracranial meninges^1,2. Although the recurrent headache of migraine is of unknown origin and is not accompanied by an identifiable pathology, it shares with intracranial headaches features that suggest an exaggerated intracranial mechanosensitivity (worsening of the pain by coughing, breath-holding or sudden head movement^1,3). One possible basis for such symptoms would be a sensitization of meningeal afferents to mechanical stimuli. Previous studies of neuronal responses to meningeal stimulation have focused primarily on cells in the central portion of the trigeminal pathway, and have not investigated the possible occurrence of sensitization^4–12. We have recorded the …