Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share A Multi-Site View of Brain Injury: The TOP-NT Harmonized Rat MRI Dataset
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
A Multi-Site View of Brain Injury: The TOP-NT Harmonized Rat MRI Dataset
If you work in neuroimaging, neurotrauma, or computational neuroscience—and especially if you’ve ever wished for a truly comparable, cross-lab view of traumatic brain injury—this episode is for you.
We dig into a remarkable new FAIR² dataset from the TOP-NT consortium: the first harmonized, multi-site diffusion MRI resource for preclinical TBI. It brings together 343 high-resolution scans from 184 rats across four research centers, all acquired under a unified protocol and processed through a rigorous, standardized pipeline.
What makes this dataset so valuable? It marries tightly controlled acquisition with advanced harmonization methods like neuroCombat and multi-site template registration—removing scanner biases while preserving the biological injury signal. The result is a clean, comparable view of how structural brain changes unfold at 3 and 30 days after controlled cortical impact. Researchers can now reliably detect diffusion abnormalities, quantify tissue atrophy, and visualize injury progression across institutions.
We also note the limitations—like the single injury model, two timepoints, and the challenge of fully removing site effects—and emphasize how the dataset, now viewable through the interactive FAIR² Data Portal and archived in the ODC-TBI repository, can still advance harmonization research, benchmark AI models, and strengthen reproducible TBI science moving forward.
If you’re looking for a benchmark dataset for AI model training, injury signature discovery, cross-site reproducibility, or simply a clearer map of TBI evolution, this episode has you covered.
Kislik G, Fox R, Korotcov A, Zhou J, Febo M, Moghadas B, Bibic A, Zou Y, Wan J, Koehler RC., Adebayo T, Burns MP., McCabe JT., Wang KK.W., Huie J.R, Ferguson AR., Paydar A, Wanner IB., Harris NG. and The TOP-NT Investigators (2025) Multi-site, in vivo MRI dataset of brain diffusivity measures before and after harmonization, and atrophy measures following controlled cortical impact in male and female adult rats. Front. Neurol. 16:1719618. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1719618
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit senscience.substack.com
View all episodes
By SenscienceIf you work in neuroimaging, neurotrauma, or computational neuroscience—and especially if you’ve ever wished for a truly comparable, cross-lab view of traumatic brain injury—this episode is for you.
We dig into a remarkable new FAIR² dataset from the TOP-NT consortium: the first harmonized, multi-site diffusion MRI resource for preclinical TBI. It brings together 343 high-resolution scans from 184 rats across four research centers, all acquired under a unified protocol and processed through a rigorous, standardized pipeline.
What makes this dataset so valuable? It marries tightly controlled acquisition with advanced harmonization methods like neuroCombat and multi-site template registration—removing scanner biases while preserving the biological injury signal. The result is a clean, comparable view of how structural brain changes unfold at 3 and 30 days after controlled cortical impact. Researchers can now reliably detect diffusion abnormalities, quantify tissue atrophy, and visualize injury progression across institutions.
We also note the limitations—like the single injury model, two timepoints, and the challenge of fully removing site effects—and emphasize how the dataset, now viewable through the interactive FAIR² Data Portal and archived in the ODC-TBI repository, can still advance harmonization research, benchmark AI models, and strengthen reproducible TBI science moving forward.
If you’re looking for a benchmark dataset for AI model training, injury signature discovery, cross-site reproducibility, or simply a clearer map of TBI evolution, this episode has you covered.
Kislik G, Fox R, Korotcov A, Zhou J, Febo M, Moghadas B, Bibic A, Zou Y, Wan J, Koehler RC., Adebayo T, Burns MP., McCabe JT., Wang KK.W., Huie J.R, Ferguson AR., Paydar A, Wanner IB., Harris NG. and The TOP-NT Investigators (2025) Multi-site, in vivo MRI dataset of brain diffusivity measures before and after harmonization, and atrophy measures following controlled cortical impact in male and female adult rats. Front. Neurol. 16:1719618. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1719618
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit senscience.substack.com