Information for Academics
Overview of study
Characterising Longitudinal Development
The DCCP is a longitudinal neuroimaging study designed to characterise brain, cognitive and socio‑emotional development across middle childhood (ages 6–12). By following a cohort previously phenotyped during fetal and neonatal periods, it enables a unique life‑course investigation.
Ultra-High Field Neuroimaging
The project integrates ultra‑high field (UHF) 7 Tesla MRI with detailed cognitive and socio‑environmental phenotyping. This allows us to examine age‑related changes in brain organisation and brain–behaviour associations at the individual level.
Closing the Developmental Gap
By extending the dHCP into middle childhood, DCCP addresses a critical gap in developmental neuroscience. It constitutes a unique open‑science resource to advance mechanistic understanding of childhood neurodevelopment and mental health.
We will address these aims across four integrated...
Work Packages
Objective: To collect high‑quality, multimodal brain imaging data from children aged 6–12 years.
Approach: Children undergo brain imaging using ultra‑high field (7 Tesla) MRI, providing more detailed information on brain structure, connectivity and function than conventional scanners, using child-centred approaches to reduce movement in awake participants.
Structural, diffusion and functional MRI data are acquired to generate a rich multimodal dataset for studying brain development across middle childhood.
Objective: To longitudinally characterise core psychological domains which undergo substantial refinement during middle childhood (i.e., cognitive control, social understanding)
Approach: WP2 uses standardised, developmentally sensitive assessments completed by children, parents and teachers, alongside task based measures and naturalistic observations.
Psychological measures are integrated with information on social and environmental context and aligned with parallel cohorts and earlier perinatal assessments, enabling investigation of individual developmental trajectories and their links to atypical vs typical brain development.
Objective: To generate personalised, longitudinal measures of brain structure and function that capture individual differences in neurodevelopment beyond population average atlases.
Approach: WP3 applies advanced image processing methods optimised for ultra high field MRI to derive consistent image derived phenotypes of brain anatomy, connectivity and function. This includes detailed characterisation of cortical, subcortical and cerebellar structures, white matter organisation and functional networks.
These individually tailored measures are aligned across time to define microstructural profiles, connectivity patterns and growth trajectories, and will be released as an open access resource to the wider research community to support robust brain-behaviour analyses.
Objective: To identify mechanisms linking neurobiological, behaviour and socio environmental context to mental health vulnerability and resilience.
Approach: WP4 integrates longitudinal psychological phenotyping (WP2) with personalised brain measures (WP3) to model individual developmental trajectories.
A range of longitudinal, multivariate and data driven modelling approaches will be used to identify patterns of brain-behaviour development, link early brain features to later outcomes, and characterise mechanisms supporting resilience or vulnerability across childhood.
Open science and sharing our findings
Sharing our data
DCCP will create a unique resource that extends the Developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP) into middle childhood. It combines ultra-high-field brain imaging with information on children’s thinking, behaviour and home and school environments.
We will share curated datasets, image-based measures and open-source analysis tools with researchers worldwide through the NIMH Data Archive (NDA), supporting future discoveries in child brain development and mental health.
Sharing what we find
We will publish our findings in scientific journals, present them at international conferences and share them through research networks. We will also share them with young people, families, teachers, clinicians and policymakers through this website, public events and digital media.
Our aim is for DCCP to advance both science and public understanding of children’s brain development and mental health.