Fetal Brain Diffusion MRI Atlas with Tissue Segmentations

Aggregating diffusion atlas images for the human fetal brain across gestational ages 23 to 38 weeks. It includes derived scalar images like fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity, along with tissue and regional segmentations. The atlas is an improved version of a prior 2019 DWI atlas, with segmentations for weeks 23-35 being carefully edited.

Use Cases

• Analyze fetal brain development by tracking changes in fractional anisotropy (_fa) and mean diffusivity (_md) across gestational weeks 23 to 38.
• Study tissue microstructure by applying the provided tissue segmentation (_tissue) masks to diffusion scalar images for specific anatomical regions.
• Validate automated segmentation algorithms by comparing results against the manually edited regional segmentations (_region) available for weeks 23-35.
• Investigate spatiotemporal brain growth patterns using the aligned diffusion tensor images (_tensor) across the 16-week gestational age range.

Strengths

• Covers a 16-week gestational age range from week 23 to week 38.
• Includes multiple derived diffusion metrics per age point: fractional anisotropy, color FA, and mean diffusivity.
• Provides both tissue and regional anatomical segmentations for research analysis.

Limitations

• Segmentations for gestational weeks 36-38 are automatically propagated and noted to be of low quality.
• The dataset is intended for research purposes and is not validated for medical or diagnostic use.
• The atlas reconstructions were computed in separate coordinates from a T2 atlas, requiring alignment steps which may introduce registration errors.

Provenance

Source

CRL2025 Fetal Atlas, associated with authors Bagheri et al. and Khan et al.

Collection Method

Computed from in utero diffusion tensor MRI scans, with segmentations fitted via diffeomorphic registration and manual editing.

Time Range

Gestational age weeks 23 through 38.

Freshness

Last updated in March 2026.