Paediatric population neuroimaging and the Generation R Study: the second wave

Abstract

Paediatric population neuroimaging is an emerging field that falls at the intersection between developmental neuroscience and epidemiology. A key feature of population neuroimaging studies involves large-scale recruitment that is representative of the general population. One successful approach for population neuroimaging is to embed neuroimaging studies within large epidemiological cohorts. The Generation R Study is a large, prospective population-based birth-cohort in which nearly 10,000 pregnant mothers were recruited between 2002 and 2006 with repeated measurements in the children and their parents over time. Magnetic resonance imaging was included in 2009 with the scanning of 1070 6-to-9-year-old children. The second neuroimaging wave was initiated in April 2013 with a total of 4245 visiting the MRI suite and 4087 9-to-11-year-old children being scanned. The sequences included high-resolution structural MRI, 35-direction diffusion weighted imaging, and a 6 min and 2 s resting-state functional MRI scan. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of the imaging protocol and the overlap between the neuroimaging data and metadata. We conclude by providing a brief overview of results from our first wave of neuroimaging, which highlights a diverse array of questions that can be addressed by merging the fields of developmental neuroscience and epidemiology.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10654-017-0319-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Polygenic Multiple Sclerosis Risk and Population‐Based Childhood Brain Imaging

“…This study was conducted using data from the Generation R Study, a longitudinal population‐based birth cohort (n = 9,749) designed to examine different facets of pediatric development . Between March 2013 and November 2015, 3,992 participants aged 8 to 12 years visited a study‐dedicated research center for an MRI scan . The present study included unrelated participants of European ancestry with usable MRI and genotype data (Fig ).…”

“…Both high‐resolution structural MRI and diffusion‐weighted images were collected. A detailed description of the scan protocol, imaging procedures, and subsequent processing of the imaging data can be found in earlier work from our study group …”

Automated quality assessment of structural magnetic resonance images in children: Comparison with visual inspection and surface‐based reconstruction

“…The first neuroimaging wave of the Generation R Study began in September 2009 until July 2013 and a total of 1070 six‐ to nine‐year‐old children were scanned (White et al, ). The second neuroimaging wave started in April 2013 with 4,087 nine‐ to eleven‐year‐old children scanned (White et al, ). Prior to recruitment during each phase of the study informed consent was obtained and each neuroimaging wave was approved by the Medical Ethical Committee (METC).…”

Autistic traits and neuropsychological performance in 6- to-10-year-old children: a population-based study

“…We utilized the SRS short form, which consists of 18 items scored from 0 ("never true") to 3 ("almost always true") and that reflects the parent's observation of the child's social behavior over the past 6 months. The 18-item SRS total score has been shown to correlate between 0.93 and 0.99 with the total score of the full SRS version in three different large studies (Constantino & Todd, 2003;Daniels et al, 2012;White et al, 2017). The SRS 18-item measure provides a valid quantitative measure of subclinical and clinical autistic traits and covers both the social communication/interaction and restricted/ repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities.…”

“…Medical records were examined for children who scored screen positive in one or more of several stages of a multifaceted ASD screening procedure (White et al, 2017). Screen positive for ASD was based on one of three sources of information.…”