Abstract
Psychiatric and neurological disorders are afflictions of the brain that can affect individuals throughout their lifespan. Many brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have been conducted; however, imaging-based diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers are not yet well established. The Brain/MINDS Beyond human brain MRI project (FY2018 ∼ FY2023) is a multi-site harmonization study aiming to establish clinically-relevant imaging biomarkers using multiple high-performance scanners, standardized multi-modal imaging, and a study design that includes traveling subjects. This project began with 13 clinical research sites that collect MRI data on psychiatric and neurological disorders across the lifespan and three research sites that design and develop measurement procedures, neuroimaging protocols, data storage and sharing, and analysis tools. Brain images obtained with the Harmonization protocol (HARP) are preprocessed and analyzed using approaches developed by the Human Connectome Project, generating preliminary cortical structure, function, and connectivity measures that are comparable across scanners. The use of ‘travelling subjects’, in which study participants travel to multiple sites to undergo scanning with standardized neuroimaging techniques, enable us to minimize the measurement bias between scanners and protocols and to increase the sensitivity and specificity of case-control studies. All the imaging and demographic and clinical data are shared between the participating sites and will be made publicly available in 2024. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first multi-site human brain MRI project to explore multiple psychiatric and neurological disorders across the lifespan. The Brain/MINDS Beyond human brain MRI project will help to identify the common and disease-specific pathophysiology features of brain diseases and develop imaging biomarkers for clinical practice.
Competing Interest Statement
Katsutoshi Murata and Yuta Urushibara are employed by Siemens Healthcare K.K., Tokyo, Japan. The other authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.
Abbreviations
- DALYs
- disability-adjusted life years
- MRI
- magnetic resonance imaging
- HCP
- Human Connectome Project
- ABCD
- Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development
- BPD
- bipolar disorder
- MDD
- major depressive disorder
- DecNef
- Decoded Neurofeedback
- ASD
- autism spectrum disorder
- ADNI
- Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
- AD
- Alzheimer’s disease
- MCI
- mild cognitive impairment
- PPMI
- Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative
- PD
- Parkinson’s disease
- T1w
- T1-weighted
- T2w
- T2-weighted
- rsfMRI
- resting state functional MRI
- CRHD
- Connectome Related to Human Disease
- GLM
- general linear model
- TS
- traveling subject
- AMED
- Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development
- Brain/MINDS Beyond
- Strategic International Brain Science Research Promotion Program
- HARP
- Harmonization protocol
- DWI
- diffusion-weighted imaging
- QC
- quality control
- MNI
- Montreal Neurological Institute
- MSM
- multi-modal surface matching
- GLMM
- general linear mixed model
- CIFTI
- Connectivity Informatics Technology Initiative
- FEF
- frontal eye field
- PEF
- premotor eye field
- PSL
- peri-sylvian language
- STS
- superior temporal sulcus
- NODDI
- nerite orientation and density imaging