Showing that our brains shrink as we grow older. 🧠
spanning six continents and dozens of institutions, the results of which have just been reported in the journal Nature.The vast amount of data we combined allowed us to establish a set of reference charts for a number of brain features across the lifespan. This enabled us to precisely map the timing of milestones in brain development and aging. These included:
The volume of white matter also increased rapidly from mid-gestation through early childhood and peaks just before we are 29 years old.Grey matter volume in the subcortex peaks in adolescence at 14 and a half years old. Beyond group-level comparisons, these reference charts will enable future research to benchmark individuals in relation to a population. We hope this will result in individually tailored and relevant measurements. This progress is particularly important in the context of mental illness, that is, people may share a diagnostic label despite differences in their symptoms and, perhaps, in what is causing their condition.
Some consortiums could not participate in our project because of disproportionate authorship requirements or stipulations about what could and could not be studied with their data. These are important considerations as we, as academic researchers, push toward a more open and collaborative science. This work would not be possible without the collective team spirit from our existing contributors and members of the scientific community around us.