Mark A. Connelly, PhD

Director, Research, Developmental & Behavioral Health; Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine

Full Biography

Mark Connelly, PhD, Research Director, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Health, has received a three-year, $753,142 R34 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). The grant supports his study, “Feasibility Trial of Home-Based Immersive Neurofeedback Self-Regulation Training (INSeRT) for the Preventive Treatment of Pediatric Migraine,” and runs from Sept. 22, 2025, through Aug. 31, 2028 (Award No. 1R34AT013083-01A1).

Migraine is a common neurological disease in children that can become highly disabling. Medications used for migraine prevention have limited effectiveness for many children and often cause bothersome side effects. Dr. Connelly’s study is testing a nonpharmacological, noninvasive brain-computer interface that delivers a mind-body treatment aimed at modifying cortical excitability — a key vulnerability factor for migraine, reflecting how reactive the brain is to stimulation. The treatment — immersive neurofeedback self-regulation training (INSeRT) — pairs a wearable electroencephalogram (EEG) headband with a virtual reality (VR) headset, providing neurofeedback that adjusts the VR display based on children’s success in using psychological techniques to calm brain activity.

Dr. Connelly’s team hypothesizes that using this treatment at home will be a safe and effective way for children with migraine to promote neuroplastic changes that reduce baseline brain reactivity and, in turn, lower the risk of future migraines. In this initial feasibility trial, 38 children between ages 10-16 with migraine will complete baseline assessments and be randomly assigned to one of two groups: INSeRT or an immersive imagery condition without neurofeedback. Participants will use a provided treatment kit at home for four weeks according to the assigned protocol. Outcomes related to brain activity, symptoms and daily functioning will be tracked during treatment, immediately after and at a three-month follow-up to help guide the design of a larger future efficacy trial.

“This study may open the door to an engaging and accessible preventive treatment option for children with migraine, while also advancing the science of personalized mind-body interventions by linking digital biomarkers of treatment-related brain changes to health outcomes,” said Dr. Connelly.

Co-investigators on this study are Trevor Gerson, MD, Neurology; Henry Yeh, PhD, MS, Health Outcomes and Health Services Research; and KU Medical Center researchers Rebecca Lepping, PhD, and Ke Lao, PhD. Preliminary work that informed this grant application was supported in part by the Center for Pediatric Innovation’s SPARK Employee Innovation Bash.

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.