Reproducible Brain Charts: An open data resource for mapping brain development and its associations with mental...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Developmental Science

Background:

• Mental disorders are increasingly viewed as disruptions in brain development.
• Large, diverse datasets are crucial for understanding generalizable links between brain development and psychopathology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce Reproducible Brain Charts (RBC), an open resource for studying brain development and psychopathology in youth.
• To facilitate large-scale, reproducible, and generalizable research in developmental and psychiatric neuroscience.

Main Methods:

• Integrated data from 5 large studies (N = 6,346) across three continents.
• Used bifactor models for harmonized psychiatric phenotyping.
• Applied consistent, reproducible pipelines for neuroimaging data curation and processing after rigorous quality assurance.

Main Results:

• Initial analyses highlight the importance of quality assurance and data harmonization.
• Demonstrated the utility of RBC in delineating developmental effects and psychopathology associations.
• Successfully created harmonized psychiatric phenotypes capturing major dimensions of psychopathology.

Conclusions:

• Reproducible Brain Charts (RBC) is a valuable, open-access resource for the research community.
• RBC supports large-scale, reproducible, and generalizable research in developmental and psychiatric neuroscience.
• Open sharing of data without restrictions promotes scientific advancement.