Over the past few decades, neuroimaging has become a ubiquitous tool in basic
research and clinical studies of the human brain. However, no reference standards
currently exist to quantify individual diferences in neuroimaging metrics over time,
in contrast to growth charts for anthropometric traits such as height and weight1
.
Here we assemble an interactive open resource to benchmark brain morphology
derived from any current or future sample of MRI data (http://www.brainchart.io/).
With the goal of basing these reference charts on the largest and most inclusive
dataset available, acknowledging limitations due to known biases of MRI studies
relative to the diversity of the global population, we aggregated 123,984 MRI scans,
across more than 100 primary studies, from 101,457 human participants between 115
days post-conception to 100 years of age. MRI metrics were quantifed by centile
scores, relative to non-linear trajectories2
of brain structural changes, and rates of
change, over the lifespan. Brain charts identifed previously unreported neurodevelo pmental milestones3
, showed high stability of individuals across longitudinal
assessments, and demonstrated robustness to technical and methodological
diferences between primary studies. Centile scores showed increased heritability
compared with non-centiled MRI phenotypes, and provided a standardized measure
of atypical brain structure that revealed patterns of neuroanatomical variation across
neurological and psychiatric disorders. In summary, brain charts are an essential step
towards robust quantifcation of individual variation benchmarked to normative
trajectories in multiple, commonly used neuroimaging phenotypes