Purpose of review: The intent of this study is to review trends in multicenter neuroimaging trials and their value for research and implications for clinical treatment.
Recent findings: The rise in availability of MRI for detecting disorders in the living brain has made it an attractive technology for assessing neural structure and function in a number of prominent diseases. Geographic factors underlying diseased populations coupled with complementary neuroimaging research programs have led to an increase in multicenter neuroimaging trials and consortia. Neuroimaging has become a major focus for multiinstitutional research in progressive changes in brain architecture, proxy biomarkers of treatment response, and the effects of disease on patterns of cognitive activation and connectivity. Notable consortia and research trial studies have focused on Alzheimer's disease, pediatric brain cancer, and fetal alcohol syndrome, in addition to multiinstitutional collaborative programs for mapping the normal brain. Such large-scale efforts necessitate close coordination of image data collection protocols, ontology development, computational requirements, concerted data archiving, and sharing.
Summary: Multicenter neuroimaging trials, consortia, and collaboratives enable the acquisition of large-scale, purpose-driven datasets that can then be used by the broader community to model and predict clinical outcomes as well as guide clinicians in selecting treatment options for neurological disease.