Single-value brain activity scores reflect both severity and risk across the Alzheimer's continuum.

Single-value scores reflecting the deviation from (FADE score) or similarity with (SAME score) prototypical novelty-related and memory-related functional MRI activation patterns in young adults have been proposed as imaging biomarkers of healthy neurocognitive ageing. Here, we tested the utility of these scores as potential diagnostic and prognostic markers in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and risk states like mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or subjective cognitive decline (SCD). To this end, we analysed subsequent memory functional MRI data from individuals with SCD, MCI and AD dementia as well as healthy controls and first-degree relatives of AD dementia patients (AD-rel) who participated in the multi-centre DELCODE study (n = 468). Based on the individual participants' whole-brain functional MRI novelty and subsequent memory responses, we calculated the FADE and SAME scores and assessed their association with AD risk stage, neuropsychological test scores, CSF amyloid positivity and APOE genotype. Memory-based FADE and SAME scores showed a considerably larger deviation from a reference sample of young adults in the MCI and AD dementia groups compared to healthy controls, SCD and AD-rel. In addition, novelty-based scores significantly differed between the MCI and AD dementia groups. Across the entire sample, single-value scores correlated with neuropsychological test performance. The novelty-based SAME score further differed between Aß-positive and Aß-negative individuals in SCD and AD-rel, and between ApoE ɛ4 carriers and non-carriers in AD-rel. Hence, FADE and SAME scores are associated with both cognitive performance and individual risk factors for AD. Their potential utility as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers warrants further exploration, particularly in individuals with SCD and healthy relatives of AD dementia patients.

A generalizable data-driven model of atrophy heterogeneity and progression in memory clinic settings.

Memory clinic patients are a heterogeneous population representing various aetiologies of pathological ageing. It is not known whether divergent spatiotemporal progression patterns of brain atrophy, as previously described in Alzheimer's disease patients, are prevalent and clinically meaningful in this group of older adults. To uncover distinct atrophy subtypes, we applied the Subtype and Stage Inference (SuStaIn) algorithm to baseline structural MRI data from 813 participants enrolled in the DELCODE cohort (mean ± standard deviation, age = 70.67 ± 6.07 years, 52% females). Participants were cognitively unimpaired (n = 285) or fulfilled diagnostic criteria for subjective cognitive decline (n = 342), mild cognitive impairment (n = 118) or dementia of the Alzheimer's type (n = 68). Atrophy subtypes were compared in baseline demographics, fluid Alzheimer's disease biomarker levels, the Preclinical Alzheimer Cognitive Composite (PACC-5) as well as episodic memory and executive functioning. PACC-5 trajectories over up to 240 weeks were examined. To test whether baseline atrophy subtype and stage predicted clinical trajectories before manifest cognitive impairment, we analysed PACC-5 trajectories and mild cognitive impairment conversion rates of cognitively unimpaired participants and those with subjective cognitive decline. Limbic-predominant and hippocampal-sparing atrophy subtypes were identified. Limbic-predominant atrophy initially affected the medial temporal lobes, followed by further temporal regions and, finally, the remaining cortical regions. At baseline, this subtype was related to older age, more pathological Alzheimer's disease biomarker levels, APOE ε4 carriership and an amnestic cognitive impairment. Hippocampal-sparing atrophy initially occurred outside the temporal lobe, with the medial temporal lobe spared up to advanced atrophy stages. This atrophy pattern also affected individuals with positive Alzheimer's disease biomarkers and was associated with more generalized cognitive impairment. Limbic-predominant atrophy, in all participants and in only unimpaired participants, was linked to more negative longitudinal PACC-5 slopes than observed in participants without or with hippocampal-sparing atrophy and increased the risk of mild cognitive impairment conversion. SuStaIn modelling was repeated in a sample from the Swedish BioFINDER-2 cohort. Highly similar atrophy progression patterns and associated cognitive profiles were identified. Cross-cohort model generalizability, at both the subject and the group level, was excellent, indicating reliable performance in previously unseen data. The proposed model is a promising tool for capturing heterogeneity among older adults at early at-risk states for Alzheimer's disease in applied settings. The implementation of atrophy subtype- and stage-specific end points might increase the statistical power of pharmacological trials targeting early Alzheimer's disease.

Chemical shift-based prospective k-space anonymization.

PURPOSE: Publicly available data provision is an essential part of open science. However, open data can conflict with data privacy and data protection regulations. Head scans are particularly vulnerable because the subject's face can be reconstructed from the acquired images. Although defacing can impede subject identification in reconstructed images, this approach is not applicable to k-space raw data. To address this challenge and allow defacing of raw data for publication, we present chemical shift-based prospective k-space anonymization (CHARISMA). METHODS: In spin-warp imaging, fat shift occurs along the frequency-encoding direction. By placing an oil-filled mask onto the subject's face, the shifted fat signal can overlap with the face to deface k-space during the acquisition. The CHARISMA approach was tested for gradient-echo sequences in a single subject wearing the oil-filled mask at 7 T. Different fat shifts were compared by varying the readout bandwidth. Furthermore, intensity-based segmentation was used to test whether the images could be unmasked retrospectively. RESULTS: To impede subject identification after retrospective unmasking, the signal of face and shifted oil should overlap. In this single-subject study, a shift of 3.3 mm to 4.9 mm resulted in the most efficient masking. Independent of CHARISMA, long TEs induce signal decay and dephasing, which impeded unmasking. CONCLUSION: To our best knowledge, CHARISMA is the first prospective k-space defacing approach. With proper fat-shift direction and amplitude, this easy-to-build, low-cost solution impaired subject identification in gradient-echo data considerably. Further sequences will be tested with CHARISMA in the future.

Locus coeruleus imaging as a biomarker for noradrenergic dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases.

Pathological alterations to the locus coeruleus, the major source of noradrenaline in the brain, are histologically evident in early stages of neurodegenerative diseases. Novel MRI approaches now provide an opportunity to quantify structural features of the locus coeruleus in vivo during disease progression. In combination with neuropathological biomarkers, in vivo locus coeruleus imaging could help to understand the contribution of locus coeruleus neurodegeneration to clinical and pathological manifestations in Alzheimer's disease, atypical neurodegenerative dementias and Parkinson's disease. Moreover, as the functional sensitivity of the noradrenergic system is likely to change with disease progression, in vivo measures of locus coeruleus integrity could provide new pathophysiological insights into cognitive and behavioural symptoms. Locus coeruleus imaging also holds the promise to stratify patients into clinical trials according to noradrenergic dysfunction. In this article, we present a consensus on how non-invasive in vivo assessment of locus coeruleus integrity can be used for clinical research in neurodegenerative diseases. We outline the next steps for in vivo, post-mortem and clinical studies that can lay the groundwork to evaluate the potential of locus coeruleus imaging as a biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases.

Prospective motion correction improves high-resolution quantitative susceptibility mapping at 7T.

PURPOSE: Recent literature has shown the potential of high-resolution quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) with ultra-high field MRI for imaging the anatomy, the vasculature, and investigating their magnetostatic properties. Higher spatial resolutions, however, translate to longer scans resulting, therefore, in higher vulnerability to, and likelihood of, subject movement. We propose a gradient-recalled echo sequence with prospective motion correction (PMC) to address such limitation. METHODS: Data from 4 subjects were acquired at 7T. The effect of small and large motion on QSM with and without PMC was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. Full brain QSM and QSM-based venograms with up to 0.33 mm isotropic voxel size were reconstructed. RESULTS: With PMC, motion artifacts in QSM and QSM-based venograms were largely eliminated, enabling-in both large- and small-amplitude motion regimes-accurate depiction of the cortex, vasculature, and other small anatomical structures that are often blurred as a result of head movement or indiscernible at lower image resolutions. Quantitative analyses demonstrated that uncorrected motion could bias regional susceptibility distributions, a trend that was greatly reduced with PMC. CONCLUSION: Qualitatively, PMC prevented image degradation because of motion artifacts, providing highly detailed QSM images and venograms. Quantitatively, PMC increased the reproducibility of susceptibility measures.

Prospective motion correction enables highest resolution time-of-flight angiography at 7T.

PURPOSE: Higher magnetic field strengths enable time-of-flight (TOF) angiography with higher resolution to depict small-vessel pathologies. However, this potential is limited by the subject's ability to remain motionless. Even small-scale, involuntary motion can degrade vessel depiction, thus limiting the effective resolution. The aim of this study was to overcome this resolution limit by deploying prospectively motion-corrected (PMC) TOF. METHODS: An optical, marker-based, in-bore tracking system was used to update the imaging volume prospectively according to the subject's head motion. PMC TOF was evaluated in 12 healthy, cooperative subjects at isotropic resolution of up to 150 µm. Image quality was assessed qualitatively through reader rating and quantitatively with the average edge-strength metric. RESULTS: PMC significantly increased the average edge strength and qualitatively improved the vessel depiction in nine out of 11 cases. Image quality was never degraded by motion correction. PMC also enabled acquisition of the highest resolution human brain in vivo TOF angiography to date. CONCLUSION: With PMC enabled, high-resolution TOF is able to visualize brain vasculature beyond the effective resolution limit. Magn Reson Med 80:248-258, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Visualization of the amygdalo-hippocampal border and its structural variability by 7T and 3T magnetic resonance imaging.

The amygdala and the hippocampus are two adjacent structures in the medial temporal lobe that have been broadly investigated in functional and structural neuroimaging due to their central importance in sensory perception, emotion, and memory. Exact demarcation of the amygdalo-hippocampal border (AHB) is, however, difficult in conventional structural imaging. Recent evidence suggests that, due to this difficulty, functional activation sites with high probability of being located in the hippocampus may erroneously be assigned to the amygdala, and vice versa. In the present study, we investigated the potential of ultra-high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in single sessions for detecting the AHB in humans. We show for the first time the detailed structure of the AHB as it can be visualized in T1-weighted 7T in vivo images at 0.5-mm(3) isotropic resolution. Compared to data acquired at 3T, 7T images revealed considerably more structural detail in the AHB region. Thus, we observed a striking inter-hemispheric and interindividual variability of the exact anatomical configuration of the AHB that points to the necessity of individual imaging of the AHB as a prerequisite for accurate anatomical assignment in this region. The findings of the present study demonstrate the usefulness of ultra-high-field structural MRI to resolve anatomical ambiguities of the human AHB. Highly accurate morphometric and functional investigations in this region at 7T may allow addressing such hitherto unexplored issues as whether the structural configuration of the AHB is related to functional differences in amygdalo-hippocampal interaction.

Functional locus coeruleus imaging to investigate an ageing noradrenergic system.

The locus coeruleus (LC), our main source of norepinephrine (NE) in the brain, declines with age and is a potential epicentre of protein pathologies in neurodegenerative diseases (ND). In vivo measurements of LC integrity and function are potentially important biomarkers for healthy ageing and early ND onset. In the present study, high-resolution functional MRI (fMRI), a reversal reinforcement learning task, and dedicated post-processing approaches were used to visualise age differences in LC function (N = 50). Increased LC responses were observed during emotionally and task-related salient events, with subsequent accelerations and decelerations in reaction times, respectively, indicating context-specific adaptive engagement of the LC. Moreover, older adults exhibited increased LC activation compared to younger adults, indicating possible compensatory overactivation of a structurally declining LC in ageing. Our study shows that assessment of LC function is a promising biomarker of cognitive aging.

Fully Automated MRI-based Analysis of the Locus Coeruleus in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Dementia using ELSI-Net.

INTRODUCTION: The Locus Coeruleus (LC) is linked to the development and pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Magnetic Resonance Imaging based LC features have shown potential to assess LC integrity in vivo. METHODS: We present a Deep Learning based LC segmentation and feature extraction method: ELSI-Net and apply it to healthy aging and AD dementia datasets. Agreement to expert raters and previously published LC atlases were assessed. We aimed to reproduce previously reported differences in LC integrity in aging and AD dementia and correlate extracted features to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of AD pathology. RESULTS: ELSI-Net demonstrated high agreement to expert raters and published atlases. Previously reported group differences in LC integrity were detected and correlations to CSF biomarkers were found. DISCUSSION: Although we found excellent performance, further evaluations on more diverse datasets from clinical cohorts are required for a conclusive assessment of ELSI-Nets general applicability.

Short communication: Lifetime musical activity and resting-state functional connectivity in cognitive networks.

BACKGROUND: Participation in multimodal leisure activities, such as playing a musical instrument, may be protective against brain aging and dementia in older adults (OA). Potential neuroprotective correlates underlying musical activity remain unclear. OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional study investigated the association between lifetime musical activity and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) in three higher-order brain networks: the Default Mode, Fronto-Parietal, and Salience networks. METHODS: We assessed 130 cognitively unimpaired participants (≥ 60 years) from the baseline cohort of the DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (DELCODE) study. Lifetime musical activity was operationalized by the self-reported participation in musical instrument playing across early, middle, and late life stages using the Lifetime of Experiences Questionnaire (LEQ). Participants who reported musical activity during all life stages (n = 65) were compared to controls who were matched on demographic and reserve characteristics (including education, intelligence, socioeconomic status, self-reported physical activity, age, and sex) and never played a musical instrument (n = 65) in local (seed-to-voxel) and global (within-network and between-network) RSFC patterns using pre-specified network seeds. RESULTS: Older participants with lifetime musical activity showed significantly higher local RSFC between the medial prefrontal cortex (Default Mode Network seed) and temporal as well as frontal regions, namely the right temporal pole and the right precentral gyrus extending into the superior frontal gyrus, compared to matched controls. There were no significant group differences in global RSFC within or between the three networks. CONCLUSION: We show that playing a musical instrument during life relates to higher RSFC of the medial prefrontal cortex with distant brain regions involved in higher-order cognitive and motor processes. Preserved or enhanced functional connectivity could potentially contribute to better brain health and resilience in OA with a history in musical activity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00007966, 04/05/2015).

Longitudinal evidence for a mutually reinforcing relationship between white matter hyperintensities and cortical thickness in cognitively unimpaired older adults.

BACKGROUND: For over three decades, the concomitance of cortical neurodegeneration and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) has sparked discussions about their coupled temporal dynamics. Longitudinal studies supporting this hypothesis nonetheless remain scarce. METHODS: We applied global and regional bivariate latent growth curve modelling to determine the extent to which WMH and cortical thickness were interrelated over a four-year period. For this purpose, we leveraged longitudinal MRI data from 451 cognitively unimpaired participants (DELCODE; median age 69.71 [IQR 65.51, 75.50] years; 52.32% female). Participants underwent MRI sessions annually over a four-year period (1815 sessions in total, with roughly four MRI sessions per participant). We adjusted all models for demographics and cardiovascular risk. RESULTS: Our findings were three-fold. First, larger WMH volumes were linked to lower cortical thickness (σ = -0.165, SE = 0.047, Z = -3.515, P < 0.001). Second, individuals with higher WMH volumes experienced more rapid cortical thinning (σ = -0.226, SE = 0.093, Z = -2.443, P = 0.007), particularly in temporal, cingulate, and insular regions. Similarly, those with lower initial cortical thickness had faster WMH progression (σ = -0.141, SE = 0.060, Z = -2.336, P = 0.009), with this effect being most pronounced in temporal, cingulate, and insular cortices. Third, faster WMH progression was associated with accelerated cortical thinning (σ = -0.239, SE = 0.139, Z = -1.710, P = 0.044), particularly in frontal, occipital, and insular cortical regions. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that cortical thinning and WMH progression could be mutually reinforcing rather than parallel, unrelated processes, which become entangled before cognitive deficits are detectable. TRIAL REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00007966, 04/05/2015).

Inferior Frontal Sulcal Hyperintensities on Brain MRI Are Associated with Amyloid Positivity beyond Age-Results from the Multicentre Observational DELCODE Study.

Inferior frontal sulcal hyperintensities (IFSHs) on fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequences have been proposed to be indicative of glymphatic dysfunction. Replication studies in large and diverse samples are nonetheless needed to confirm them as an imaging biomarker. We investigated whether IFSHs were tied to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology and cognitive performance. We used data from 361 participants along the AD continuum, who were enrolled in the multicentre DELCODE study. The IFSHs were rated visually based on FLAIR magnetic resonance imaging. We performed ordinal regression to examine the relationship between the IFSHs and cerebrospinal fluid-derived amyloid positivity and tau positivity (Aß42/40 ratio ≤ 0.08; pTau181 ≥ 73.65 pg/mL) and linear regression to examine the relationship between cognitive performance (i.e., Mini-Mental State Examination and global cognitive and domain-specific performance) and the IFSHs. We controlled the models for age, sex, years of education, and history of hypertension. The IFSH scores were higher in those participants with amyloid positivity (OR: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.05-3.59) but not tau positivity (OR: 1.12, 95% CI: 0.57-2.18). The IFSH scores were higher in older participants (OR: 1.05, 95% CI: 1.00-1.10) and lower in males compared to females (OR: 0.44, 95% CI: 0.26-0.76). We did not find sufficient evidence linking the IFSH scores with cognitive performance after correcting for demographics and AD biomarker positivity. IFSHs may reflect the aberrant accumulation of amyloid ß beyond age.

Perivascular space enlargement accelerates in ageing and Alzheimer's disease pathology: evidence from a three-year longitudinal multicentre study.

BACKGROUND: Perivascular space (PVS) enlargement in ageing and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the drivers of such a structural change in humans require longitudinal investigation. Elucidating the effects of demographic factors, hypertension, cerebrovascular dysfunction, and AD pathology on PVS dynamics could inform the role of PVS in brain health function as well as the complex pathophysiology of AD. METHODS: We studied PVS in centrum semiovale (CSO) and basal ganglia (BG) computationally over three to four annual visits in 503 participants (255 females; meanage = 70.78 ± 5.78) of the ongoing observational multicentre "DZNE Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study" (DELCODE) cohort. We analysed data from subjects who were cognitively unimpaired (n = 401), had amnestic mild cognitive impairment (n = 71), or had AD (n = 31). We used linear mixed-effects modelling to test for changes of PVS volumes in relation to cross-sectional and longitudinal age, as well as sex, years of education, hypertension, white matter hyperintensities, AD diagnosis, and cerebrospinal-fluid-derived amyloid (A) and tau (T) status (available for 46.71%; A-T-/A + T-/A + T + n = 143/48/39). RESULTS: PVS volumes increased significantly over follow-ups (CSO: B = 0.03 [0.02, 0.05], p < 0.001; BG: B = 0.05 [0.03, 0.07], p < 0.001). PVS enlargement rates varied substantially across subjects and depended on the participant's age, white matter hyperintensities volumes, and amyloid and tau status. PVS volumes were higher across elderly participants, regardless of region of interest (CSO: B = 0.12 [0.02, 0.21], p = 0.017; BG: B = 0.19 [0.09, 0.28], p < 0.001). Faster BG-PVS enlargement related to lower baseline white matter hyperintensities volumes (ρspearman = -0.17, pFDR = 0.001) and was more pronounced in individuals who presented with combined amyloid and tau positivity versus negativity (A + T + > A-T-, pFDR = 0.004) or who were amyloid positive but tau negative (A + T + > A + T-, pFDR = 0.07). CSO-PVS volumes increased at a faster rate with amyloid positivity as compared to amyloid negativity (A + T-/A + T + > A-T-, pFDR = 0.021). CONCLUSION: Our longitudinal evidence supports the relevance of PVS enlargement in presumably healthy ageing as well as in AD pathology. We further discuss the region-specific involvement of white matter hyperintensities and neurotoxic waste accumulation in PVS enlargement and the possibility of additional factors contributing to PVS progression. A comprehensive understanding of PVS dynamics could facilitate the understanding of pathological cascades and might inform targeted treatment strategies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00007966. Registered 04.05.2015 - retrospectively registered, https://drks.de/search/en/trial/DRKS00007966 .

Cortical thickness determination of the human brain using high resolution 3T and 7T MRI data.

PURPOSE: The analysis of the human cerebral cortex and the measurement of its thickness based on MRI data can provide insight into normal brain development and neurodegenerative disorders. Accurate and reproducible results of the cortical thickness measurement are desired for sensitive detection. This study compares ultra-high resolution data acquired at 7T with 3T data for determination of the cortical thickness of the human brain. The impact of field strength, resolution, and processing method is evaluated systematically. METHODS: Five subjects were scanned at 3T (1 mm isotropic resolution) and 7T (1 mm and 0.5 mm isotropic resolution) with 3D MP-RAGE and 3D gradient echo methods. The inhomogeneous signal and contrast of the 7T data due to the B1 field was corrected by division of the MP-RAGE with the GE. ARCTIC, utilizing a voxel-based approach, and FreeSurfer, utilizing a surface-based approach, have been used to compute the cortical thickness of the high resolution 3T and 7T data and of the ultra-high resolution 7T data. FreeSurfer is not designed to process data with a spatial resolution other than 1mm and was modified to avoid this limitation. Additionally SPM and FSL have been used to generate segmentations which were further processed with ARCTIC to determine the cortical thickness. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: At identical resolution, the cortical thickness determination yielded consistent results between 3T and 7T confirming the robustness of the acquisition and processing against potential field strength related effects. However, the ultra-high resolution 7T data resulted in significantly reduced values for the cortical thickness estimation compared to the lower resolution data. The reduction in thickness amounts approximately one sixth to one third, depending on the processing algorithm and software used. This suggests a bias in the gray matter segmentation due to partial volume effects and indicates that true cortical thickness is overestimated by most current MR studies using both a voxel-based or surface-based method and can be more accurately determined with high resolution imaging at 7T.

It is the locus coeruleus! Or is it?: a proposition for analyses and reporting standards for structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging of the noradrenergic locus coeruleus.

The noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) is one of the protein pathology epicenters in neurodegenerative diseases. In contrast to PET (positron emission tomography), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) offers the spatial resolution necessary to investigate the 3-4 mm wide and 1.5 cm long LC. However, standard data postprocessing is often too spatially imprecise to allow investigating the structure and function of the LC at the group level. Our analysis pipeline uses a combination of existing toolboxes (SPM12, ANTs, FSL, FreeSurfer), and is tailored towards achieving suitable spatial precision in the brainstem area. Its effectiveness is demonstrated using 2 datasets comprising both younger and older adults. We also suggest quality assessment procedures which allow to quantify the spatial precision obtained. Spatial deviations below 2.5 mm in the LC area are achieved, which is superior to current standard approaches. Relevant for ageing and clinical researchers interested in brainstem imaging, we provide a tool for more reliable analyses of structural and functional LC imaging data which can be also adapted for investigating other nuclei of the brainstem.

Comprehensive ultrahigh resolution whole brain in vivo MRI dataset as a human phantom.

Here, we present an extension to our previously published structural ultrahigh resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) dataset with an isotropic resolution of 250 µm, consisting of multiple additional ultrahigh resolution contrasts. Included are up to 150 µm Time-of-Flight angiography, an updated 250 µm structural T1-weighted reconstruction, 330 µm quantitative susceptibility mapping, up to 450 µm structural T2-weighted imaging, 700 µm T1-weighted back-to-back scans, 800 µm diffusion tensor imaging, one hour continuous resting-state functional MRI with an isotropic spatial resolution of 1.8 mm as well as more than 120 other structural T1-weighted volumes together with multiple corresponding proton density weighted acquisitions collected over ten years. All data are from the same participant and were acquired on the same 7 T scanner. The repository contains the unprocessed data as well as (pre-)processing results. The data were acquired in multiple studies with individual goals. This is a unique and comprehensive collection comprising a "human phantom" dataset. Therefore, we compiled, processed, and structured the data, making them publicly available for further investigation.

T1-weighted in vivo human whole brain MRI dataset with an ultrahigh isotropic resolution of 250 µm.

We present an ultrahigh resolution in vivo human brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) dataset. It consists of T1-weighted whole brain anatomical data acquired at 7 Tesla with a nominal isotropic resolution of 250 µm of a single young healthy Caucasian subject and was recorded using prospective motion correction. The raw data amounts to approximately 1.2 TB and was acquired in eight hours total scan time. The resolution of this dataset is far beyond any previously published in vivo structural whole brain dataset. Its potential use is to build an in vivo MR brain atlas. Methods for image reconstruction and image restoration can be improved as the raw data is made available. Pre-processing and segmentation procedures can possibly be enhanced for high magnetic field strength and ultrahigh resolution data. Furthermore, potential resolution induced changes in quantitative data analysis can be assessed, e.g., cortical thickness or volumetric measures, as high quality images with an isotropic resolution of 1 and 0.5 mm of the same subject are included in the repository as well.