mBrain-21 : a Three-month Study on Context-awareness, Physiological Monitoring, and Machine Learning in Migraine and Cluster Headache

Migraine and cluster headache are brain disorders with disabling headache attacks and assoicated symptoms. Attacks have multiple phases such as the premonitory phase, aura phase, headache phase and postdromal phase. During those phases, symptoms of homeostatic disturbance or sensory alterations may occur.

The goal of the study is to observe activity, stress and sleep parameters in relation to registered headache attacks.

Participation in the mBrain-21 study will last maximum 90 days. Participants are patients with migraine or cluster heacache recruited within the headache clinic of Ghent University Hospital. Physiological variables such as heart rate, movement and galvanic skin resonse will be measured by the Empatica E4 wrist sensor. Patient-specific experiences during headache attacks and activities of daily life will be registered with a custom-made headache smartphone applications. Contextual data (e.g. smartphone usage or location) can be autonomously collected through smartphone applications.

Inclusion criteria

• Adult participants between the age of 18 en 65 years.
• Diagnosis of migraine without aura (ICHD-3 diagnosis 1.1) or migraine with aura (ICHD-3 diagnosis 1.2) or chronic migraine (ICHD-3 diagnosis 1.3)
• Headache crystal clear days on minimum 5 days per month on average.
• Onset of headache syndrome before the age of 50.
• Attacks of migraine or cluster headache are clearly distinguishable from other types of headache disorders if present.
• Participant complies with protocol to use smartphone applications on his or her own Android-based smartphone (minimum version 8.0) and to provide access to his or her smartphone dataplan.

Exclusion criteria

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