Objective：To investigate the clinical features and possible mechanisms of attention function in patients with episodic headache and chronic headache. Methods：Through a total of 18 patients with Episodic Headache（EH），20 patients with chronic headache（CH）and 21 healthy controls，respectively，neuropsychological assessment including mini mental state assessment scale（mini mental state exam，MMSE），Montreal cognitive assessment（China - Beijing edition Beijing Chinese version of Montreal Cognitive Assessment，MoCA- C），digital span test（digit span test，DS），frontal lobe function rating scale（frontal assessment battery，FAB），the hospital anxiety and Depression Scale（hospital Anxiety and depression subscales，HADS）and Pittsburgh Sleep Scale（Pittsburgh sleep quality index，PSQI）and attention network test（attention networks test，ANT），and comparative analysis. Results：There were significant differences in MoCA- C（P< 0.001 or P< 0.001），DS（P=0.002 or P=0.004），HADS（anxiety：P< 0.001 or P=0.002；depression：P< 0.001 or P=0.001）and PSQI（P< 0.001 or P=0.001）between chronic headache and episodic headache or healthy controls. Significant difference was also found in FAB between chronic headache and healthy control（P=0.021）. ANT showed that there were no significant differences in alerting，orienting or accuracy among three groups，but median response time was prolonged significantly in patients with chronic headache than those with episodic headache or healthy controls（P=0.002 or P=0.035），and compared with healthy controls，executive control function was also disrupt in chronic headache patients（P=0.042）. Conclusion：Headache does disrupt attention function，especially in chronic headache，mainly for the average reaction time to perform tasks related to CH patients with prolonged attention，executive function decreased，suggesting that CH damaged the attention network-executive function，and these might be one of the key mechanisms of headache disrupting attention.