Age-specific MRI templates for pediatric neuroimaging

Dev Neuropsychol. 2012;37(5):379-99. doi: 10.1080/87565641.2012.688900.

Abstract

This study created a database of pediatric age-specific magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain templates for normalization and segmentation. Participants included children from 4.5 through 19.5 years, totaling 823 scans from 494 subjects. Open-source processing programs (FMRIB Software Library, Statistical Parametric Mapping, Advanced Normalization Tools [ANTS]) constructed head, brain, and segmentation templates in 6-month intervals. The tissue classification (white matter [WM], gray matter [GM], cerebrospinal fluid) showed changes over age similar to previous reports. A volumetric analysis of age-related changes in WM and GM based on these templates showed expected increase/decrease pattern in GM and an increase in WM over the sampled ages. This database is available for use for neuroimaging studies (http://jerlab.psych.sc.edu/neurodevelopmentalmridatabase).

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Aging*
  • Brain / anatomy & histology*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Databases, Factual
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Male
  • Nerve Fibers, Myelinated
  • Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated
  • Neuroimaging / methods*
  • Reference Values
  • Young Adult