Motivation: Quantifying fetal movement allows first fascinating views into early human development. Fetal MRI is well suited, but isolated individually analyzed contrasts do not allow continuous assessment. Goal(s): Providing quantification of fetal motion for the whole duration of fetal MRI scans and analyzing patterns to obtain insights into time-scale, sequence, gestational age and time point of birth. Approach: A contrast, field-strength and age agnostic network was trained on nearly 3000 fetal MRI scans, providing continuous information, analyzed with a range of automatic measurements. Results: Isolated bursts of activities are replaced by continuous phases of activity across gestation. Impact: First emerging signatures of human neurological development can be systematically and automatically assessed retro- and prospectively on fetal MRI. Signatures of fetal activity and their correlation to fetal health can offer new opportunities for research and future clinical application.
Verdera et al. (Tue,) studied this question.