Any given brain may look slightly different depending on the scanner hardware, the processing software, and a dozen other factors that make each image unique. Brain Meets Supercomputersīrain scans are tricky. “This should effectively allow the neurologist to answer the question ‘this area looks atypical but atypical by how much?’” explained Bethlehem. Similar to a growth chart, BrainChart will serve as a reference to tackle disorders in brain development and aging. Jakob Seidlitz at the University of Pennsylvania, the dynamic duo decided to pursue a nearly impossible project: BrainChart, a standardized open-source database of MRI brain scans across 100 years of our lifespan. What’s been lacking is a growth chart of the brain’s anatomy that covers our entire lifespan. Brain maps are now a dime a dozen, from maps that link gene expression to brain structure, to nanoscale reconstructions that could help nudge AI towards more brain-like computations. We now have powerful MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanners to peek directly at the architecture of the brain. Forget wrapping a measuring tape around the head. In the late eighteenth century, individual growth lines were consolidated into growth charts as a standard measure of a child’s developmental trajectory, with weight, height, and head circumference as key measures. It’s a classic, if low-tech, way of tracking a child’s growth. Most of us remember this: standing with our backs against a wall while a parent marked our height. “You could imagine them being used to help evaluate patients screened for conditions such as Alzheimer’s, for example, allowing doctors to spot signs of neurodegeneration by comparing how rapidly a patient’s brain volume has changed compared to their peers,” said Bethlehem. The entire work is open sourced ( you can check it out here), published with tools that allow other contributors to match up their brain scan data to the charts. The charts already have 165 different diagnostic labels as a first step to guide scientists along.Įven at this massive scale, the charts are just the first edition. Richard Bethlehem from the University of Cambridge, who co-led the study.įor now, the charts are mainly used for research, so individual teams can dig into the treasure trove to uncover minute changes at any age-for example, hunting for warning signs of autism, dementia, or other neurological troubles. It’s allowed us to measure the very early, rapid changes that are happening in the brain, and the long, slow decline as we age,” said Dr. “One of the things we’ve been able to do, through a very concerted global effort, is to stitch together data across the whole life span. Instead of a single neat line depicting a brain’s growth trajectory, the results are more like multiple sketches in the same direction-each unique, but together forming a detailed sketch of brain development highlights.
Even more impressive, the study embraced-rather than smoothing out-individual differences. In unprecedented detail, it captured how the “average” brain grows, matures, and declines with age, and compared the average process to the one in people struck by illnesses such as Alzheimer’s.
Together, the data painted an animated picture of the brain’s journey over a human lifetime.
The youngest sample was 15 weeks after conception the oldest, a centenarian. In a tour de force study published last week in Nature, they combined almost 125,000 brain scans covering the entire human lifespan, from before birth to death. What are we missing?Ī team of international scientists just gave us the first answers with a remarkable project called BrainChart. Yet buried underneath individual differences is a common throughline, with the brain growing rapidly during childhood then slowly declining with age.īut that’s just a crude sketch of an average brain’s lifetime. Our brains are unique snowflakes that change shape throughout our lives.
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