UNC/UMN Baby Connectome Project

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Project Summary This application is in response to the RFA-MH-16-160, entitled “Lifespan Human Connectome Project (HCP): Baby Connectome”. Investigators at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and The University of Minnesota (UMN) will join forces to accomplish the goals outlined by this RFA. The team at UNC has over 10 years of experience in recruiting and imaging typically developing and at-risk children, scanning over 1000 children from birth to five years1-40. Well established infrastructure at the Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC) at UNC and Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) at UMN are in place to recruit and retain pediatric subjects and facilitate the coordination of pediatric imaging studies. Our past and ongoing studies for imaging children (birth – five years of age) without sedation have achieved an overall success rate of 81% and attrition rate of 29.3%. Our track record demonstrates that we possess the critical and essential components to successfully conduct longitudinal pediatric imaging studies focusing on early brain development, a critically-important aspect of this RFA. Our ability to recruit, retain, and image non-sedated, typically developing children is further strengthened by our image analysis team, which has developed novel image analysis tools specifically for early brain development. The expertise at UNC is complementary to and strengthened by the expertise of the team at UMN. The CMRR at UMN has been one of the leading groups in the HCP project and has developed novel MR imaging approaches to dramatically shorten data acquisition time. Furthermore, the team at UMN has extensive experience in behavioral and cognitive studies of early child development. Together, our combined team is well positioned to accomplish the goals of this RFA. To this end, a total of 500 typically developing children between birth and five years of age will be recruited across two data collection sites in a sequential cohort, accelerated longitudinal study design. The participants are divided into two main groups, longitudinal (n=285) and cross-sectional (n=215) groups, respectively. This hybrid longitudinal and cross-sectional design enables detailed characterization of early brain development from both brain structural/functional using MRI and behavioral aspects using behavioral assessments. All of the acquired images and behavioral assessments will undergo extensive quality assurance and control processes to ensure that high quality data is obtained and transferred to the Central Connectome Facility at Washington University. In addition, we will integrate novel image analysis tools, developed by our team onto the existing HCP pipelines.