What is it about?
In this study, we show for the first time that a person's chronological age between 3 and 21 years old can be measured with a high degree of accuracy using only a collection of biological brain measures taken from structural MRI scans of that person.
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Why is it important?
This is important for building a multidimensional model of the human brain that accurately captures different phases of development. It is also important for demonstrating that despite great individual differences in any single brain measure across people of the same exact age, the aggregate profile of many brain measures carries with it information that very precisely reflects the amount of time they've been kicking around on a piece of ground.
Perspectives
As far as I know, as of 2023, 11 years after our initial publication of these results, our findings still represent the most accurate biological predictors of chronological age available anywhere. This paper and our general approach helped spawned more than a decade of research in a cottage industry that is now termed "brain age."
Dr. Tim T. Brown
University of California at San Diego, School of Medicine
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Neuroanatomical Assessment of Biological Maturity, Current Biology, September 2012, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.07.002.
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