EX VIVO 11,7T MR MESOSCOPIC MULTIMODAL IMAGING OF FETAL BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

Motivation: White matter injuries are common in very premature babies and carry a significant risk of lifelong motor/cognitive disabilities. Goal(s): Create mesoscopic resolution anatomical imaging, relaxometries, and diffusion MRI data to collect full 3D coverage of multiparametric information on tissue composition and connectivity, and compare to co-registered histology. Approach: Each brain is imaged in situ at 3T shortly after death for registration purposes. After sample preparation, brains are imaged at 7T, then at 11.7T. Results: We develop a unique multimodal mesoscopic (~100µm isotropic) post-mortem MRI atlas of brain development during the prenatal period (from 20 to 41 gestational weeks -GW) using 11,7T MRI. Impact: The premature Human Connectome Project (p-HCP) provides the first mesoscopic multimodal quantitative MRI data at 11.7T of the anatomy, connectivity, cytoarchitecture, and microstructure of normal prenatal neurodevelopment during the second and third trimester of pregnancy.