Motivation: No reference standards exist to characterize white matter fiber tracts across the lifespan. Goal(s): To develop a normative database of tract-specific WM microstructural and macrostructural features across the human lifespan, creating WM brain charts of development and aging. Approach: We aggregated microstructure (FA/MD/AD/RD) and macrostructural (volume/length/surface area/etc.) measures for 72 WM tracts of 23,971 cognitively healthy participants' diffusion MRI scans from 25 studies, and then performed normative modeling and harmonization to create brain charts for each measure. Results: We identified developmental milestones and aging trends in WM microstructure and macrostructure, revealing tract-specific differences and temporal patterns. Impact: This research provides standardized WM brain charts for population comparison, enabling tract-specific assessments of brain development and aging, and identifying key developmental milestones for each tract.
Kim et al. (2025) studied this question.