Motivation: Infancy is characterized with fastest brain changes across the lifespan, with significant brain morphology differences in just several months. To precisely quantify these changes, dense age-specific infant templates and atlases are needed. Goal(s): To create comprehensive age-specific templates for infant brains at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months, facilitating infant neuroimaging analyses. Approach: We constructed age-specific infant templates using high-resolution structural and diffusion MRI data in the MNI-152 space. Results: These templates capture anatomical differences across milestone infant ages, providing a foundational resource. We showcase two applications: mapping the short-range association fibers and charting the differential myelination trajectories in infant brains. Impact: The established foundational resource for infant brain research offers dense and age-specific multi-modal MRI templates. This resource empowers researchers to conduct precise neuroimaging analyses of infants, unlocking insights into brain structure, function, and connectivity in both health and disease.
Li et al. (Tue,) studied this question.