How does a baby brain grow, and how can we analyse large amounts of ultrasound images?
During pregnancy, a baby's brain undergoes tremendous growth. To understand this process in detail, researchers use 3D ultrasounds to capture high-resolution images of the baby's brain. However, due to fetal movement in the womb and the brain’s extremely small size, obtaining clear ultrasound images can be challenging.
In practice, this means that researchers must first select high-quality images from the vast number of ultrasound scans before analysing them- a time-consuming task. To streamline this process, researchers have developed a method using deep learning techniques, a branch of artificial intelligence that enables computers to learn from large datasets.
Researcher Sonja de Zwarte: ‘With this new method, we can now automatically measure brain development over time. This allows us to conduct research on a much larger scale and to answer fundamental questions about prenatal brain development. For example, we aim to identify which risk and protective environmental factors are important for optimal early development, when children may show first signs of abnormal development and how early brain development relates to the child's mental health later in life.’
What did the researchers do?
The researchers tested their method on a vast number of 3D ultrasounds of babies in the bellies of participants in the YOUth study. They analysed ultrasounds of babies at 20 and 30 weeks old. Sonja: ‘With this new method, we can now measure brain volume very precisely in high-quality ultrasounds. Moreover, this method automatically selects the best images from the large dataset, saving us a tremendous amount of time, as we no longer have to assess everything manually.’
What did this reveal?
‘As a first step, we examined whether there are differences between boys and girls in early brain development. We know that, at a group level, boys tend to have a larger head at birth. However, the extent to which these differences are already present prenatally has rarely been studied in such a large sample. Using this method, we found that at both 20 and 30 weeks old, boys have a slightly larger brain volume than girls. The data also showed that boys' brains grow slightly faster. It is important to note that a larger head or brain not necessarily mean ‘better’ development. However, these findings provide valuable insight into the fact that boys and girls already exhibit different brain development patterns as early as mid-pregnancy.’
Why is research into this new method important?
Methods like this can help researchers gain a better understanding of early brain development before birth. ‘In the future, they might even be used to detect brain development abnormalities at an early stage. Additionally, this method will enable us to do research into baby brain development on a much larger scale,’ said Sonja.