Longitudinal brain atlases of early developing cynomolgus macaques from birth to 48 months of age
Tao Zhong,
Jingkuan Wei,
Kunhua Wu,
Liangjun Chen,
Fenqiang Zhao,
Yuchen Pei,
Ya Wang,
Hongjiang Zhang,
Zhengwang Wu,
Ying Huang,
Tengfei Li,
Li Wang,
Yongchang Chen,
Weizhi Ji,
Yu Zhang,
Gang Li,
Yuyu Niu
Affiliations
Tao Zhong
Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
Jingkuan Wei
State Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translational Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Kunming, China
Kunhua Wu
Department of MRI, the First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China
Liangjun Chen
Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA
Fenqiang Zhao
Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA
Yuchen Pei
Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA
Ya Wang
Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA
Hongjiang Zhang
Department of MRI, the First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China
Zhengwang Wu
Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA
Ying Huang
Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA
Tengfei Li
Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA
Li Wang
Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA
Yongchang Chen
State Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translational Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Kunming, China
Weizhi Ji
State Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translational Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Kunming, China
Yu Zhang
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
Gang Li
Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA; Corresponding authors at: Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA.
Yuyu Niu
Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translational Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China.; State Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translational Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China; Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Kunming, China
Longitudinal brain imaging atlases with densely sampled time-points and ancillary anatomical information are of fundamental importance in studying early developmental characteristics of human and non-human primate brains during infancy, which feature extremely dynamic imaging appearance, brain shape and size. However, for non-human primates, which are highly valuable animal models for understanding human brains, the existing brain atlases are mainly developed based on adults or adolescents, denoting a notable lack of temporally densely-sampled atlases covering the dynamic early brain development. To fill this critical gap, in this paper, we construct a comprehensive set of longitudinal brain atlases and associated tissue probability maps (gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid) with totally 12 time-points from birth to 4 years of age (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, and 48 months of age) based on 175 longitudinal structural MRI scans from 39 typically-developing cynomolgus macaques, by leveraging state-of-the-art computational techniques tailored for early developing brains. Furthermore, to facilitate region-based analysis using our atlases, we also provide two popular hierarchy parcellations, i.e., cortical hierarchy maps (6 levels) and subcortical hierarchy maps (6 levels), on our longitudinal macaque brain atlases. These early developing atlases, which have the densest time-points during infancy (to the best of our knowledge), will greatly facilitate the studies of macaque brain development.
