近日，英国剑桥大学R. A. I. Bethlehem等研究人员合作绘制出人类生命周期中的大脑图表。这一研究成果于2022年4月6日在线发表在国际学术期刊《自然》上。

研究人员组装了一个互动的开放资源，用于衡量来自任何当前或未来的核磁共振数据样本的大脑形态（http://www.brainchart.io/）。其目标是将这些参考图表建立在现有的最大和最全面的数据集上，并承认由于核磁共振研究相对于全球人口多样性的已知偏差而产生的局限性，研究人员汇总了100多项主要研究中的123,984张核磁共振扫描，这些扫描来自受孕后115天到100岁的101,457名参与者。核磁共振成像指标通过百分位数来量化，相对于大脑结构变化的非线性轨迹，以及变化率，在整个生命周期内。

脑图确定了以前没有报道的神经发育里程碑，显示了个人在纵向评估中的高度稳定性，并显示了对主要研究之间的技术和方法差异的稳健性。与非中心化的MRI表型相比，百分位数显示出更高的遗传性，并提供了非典型大脑结构的标准化测量，揭示了跨神经和精神疾病的神经解剖学变化模式。总之，脑图表是以多种常用神经影像表型的规范轨迹为基准，对个体变异进行稳健量化的重要步骤。

据悉，在过去的几十年里，神经影像学已经成为人类大脑基础研究和临床研究中无处不在的工具。然而，目前没有参考标准来量化神经影像指标随时间变化的个体差异，这与身高和体重等人体测量特征的生长图形成鲜明对比。

附：英文原文

Title: Brain charts for the human lifespan

Author: Bethlehem, R. A. I., Seidlitz, J., White, S. R., Vogel, J. W., Anderson, K. M., Adamson, C., Adler, S., Alexopoulos, G. S., Anagnostou, E., Areces-Gonzalez, A., Astle, D. E., Auyeung, B., Ayub, M., Bae, J., Ball, G., Baron-Cohen, S., Beare, R., Bedford, S. A., Benegal, V., Beyer, F., Blangero, J., Blesa Cbez, M., Boardman, J. P., Borzage, M., Bosch-Bayard, J. F., Bourke, N., Calhoun, V. D., Chakravarty, M. M., Chen, C., Chertavian, C., Chetelat, G., Chong, Y. S., Cole, J. H., Corvin, A., Costantino, M., Courchesne, E., Crivello, F., Cropley, V. L., Crosbie, J., Crossley, N., Delarue, M., Delorme, R., Desrivieres, S., Devenyi, G. A., Di Biase, M. A., Dolan, R., Donald, K. A., Donohoe, G., Dunlop, K., Edwards, A. D., Elison, J. T., Ellis, C. T., Elman, J. A., Eyler, L., Fair, D. A., Feczko, E., Fletcher, P. C., Fonagy, P., Franz, C. E.

Issue&Volume: 2022-04-06

Abstract: 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 differences 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 quantified by centile scores, relative to non-linear trajectories2 of brain structural changes, and rates of change, over the lifespan. Brain charts identified previously unreported neurodevelopmental milestones3, showed high stability of individuals across longitudinal assessments, and demonstrated robustness to technical and methodological differences 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 quantification of individual variation benchmarked to normative trajectories in multiple, commonly used neuroimaging phenotypes. MRI data from more than 100 studies have been aggregated to yield new insights about brain development and ageing, and create an interactive open resource for comparison of brain structures throughout the human lifespan, including those associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04554-y

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04554-y

期刊信息

Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：43.07

官方网址：http://www.nature.com/

投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html