A brain imaging repository of normal structural MRI across the life course: Brain Images of Normal Subjects (BRAINS)

Dominic E Job, David Alexander Dickie, David Rodriguez, Andrew Robson, Cyril Pernet, Mark E Bastin, James P Boardman, Alison D Murray, Trevor Ahearn, Gordon D Waiter, Roger T Staff, Ian J Deary, Susan D Shenkin, Joanna M Wardlaw

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Abstract

The Brain Images of Normal Subjects (BRAINS) Imagebank (http://www.brainsimagebank.ac.uk) is an integrated repository project hosted by the University of Edinburgh and sponsored by the Scottish Imaging Network: A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) collaborators. BRAINS provide sharing and archiving of detailed normal human brain imaging and relevant phenotypic data already collected in studies of healthy volunteers across the life-course. It particularly focusses on the extremes of age (currently older age, and in future perinatal) where variability is largest, and which are under-represented in existing databanks. BRAINS is a living imagebank where new data will be added when available. Currently BRAINS contains data from 808 healthy volunteers, from 15 to 81years of age, from 7 projects in 3 centres. Additional completed and ongoing studies of normal individuals from 1st to 10th decades are in preparation and will be included as they become available. BRAINS holds several MRI structural sequences, including T1, T2, T2* and fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), available in DICOM (http://dicom.nema.org/); in future Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) will be added where available. Images are linked to a wide range of 'textual data', such as age, medical history, physiological measures (e.g. blood pressure), medication use, cognitive ability, and perinatal information for pre/post-natal subjects. The imagebank can be searched to include or exclude ranges of these variables to create better estimates of 'what is normal' at different ages.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)299–304
Number of pages6
JournalNeuroimage
Volume144
Issue numberPart B
Early online date18 Jan 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2017

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments
Direct funding of BRAINS:

SINAPSE-SPIRIT funded the main BRAINS project. D. Job, D. A. Dickie, D. Gonzales, and S. Shenkin were supported by the Brain Imaging Research Centre, the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK; the BBSRC Sparking Impact scheme (BBSRC: — SI 2013-0210); Edinburgh & Lothians Health Foundation (ELHF, reference 53/311). A. Robson was supported by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC SPRI-NG, and SFC HR09021). Our funding sources had no involvement in this work.

Keywords

  • Brain imaging
  • Normal ageing
  • MRI
  • Database
  • Federated repository

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