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A longitudinal resource for studying connectome development and its psychiatric associations during childhood
Russell H Tobe1,2,3, Anna MacKay-Brandt4, Ryan Lim4
1Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, 10962, USA. russell.tobe@nki.rfmh.org.
Insights
This study introduces a pediatric brain development investigation to map normative trajectories and identify markers for mental health disorders. The research aims to improve diagnosis and management of pediatric conditions.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Most psychiatric disorders are chronic, disabling, and emerge during childhood.
- Advancements in neuroscience enable detailed study of pediatric brain development and behavior.
- There is a growing need for normative data and diagnostic tools for pediatric mental health and learning disorders.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish normative pediatric brain development trajectories.
- To identify reliable metrics for distinguishing pediatric mental illness.
- To develop tools for diagnosing and managing pediatric mental health and learning disorders.
Main Methods:
- The NKI-Rockland Sample Longitudinal Discovery of Brain Development Trajectories substudy enrolled 369 children (ages 6-17).
- A 24-30 month longitudinal design was employed using a community-ascertained sample.
- Data collection included psychiatric, medical, behavioral, cognitive, multimodal brain imaging (MRI, fMRI, ASL), genetics, and actigraphy.
Main Results:
- The study protocol for longitudinal brain development trajectories is presented.
- Detailed multimodal data were collected to characterize development.
- The dataset aims to support research into normative development and illness markers.
Conclusions:
- The presented protocol facilitates the study of pediatric brain development.
- This initiative provides a rich dataset for understanding developmental trajectories.
- The findings are expected to advance the diagnosis and management of pediatric disorders.
Abstract:
Most psychiatric disorders are chronic, associated with high levels of disability and distress, and present during pediatric development. Scientific innovation increasingly allows researchers to probe brain-behavior relationships in the developing human. As a result, ambitions to (1) establish normative pediatric brain development trajectories akin to growth curves, (2) characterize reliable metrics for distinguishing illness, and (3) develop clinically useful tools to assist in the diagnosis and management of mental health and learning disorders have gained significant momentum. To this end, the NKI-Rockland Sample initiative was created to probe lifespan development as a large-scale multimodal dataset. The NKI-Rockland Sample Longitudinal Discovery of Brain Development Trajectories substudy (N = 369) is a 24- to 30-month multi-cohort longitudinal pediatric investigation (ages 6.0-17.0 at enrollment) carried out in a community-ascertained sample. Data include psychiatric diagnostic, medical, behavioral, and cognitive phenotyping, as well as multimodal brain imaging (resting fMRI, diffusion MRI, morphometric MRI, arterial spin labeling), genetics, and actigraphy. Herein, we present the rationale, design, and implementation of the Longitudinal Discovery of Brain Development Trajectories protocol.
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