Peer-Reviewed Publication
Nat Commun2026;17(1)February 23, 2026Journal Article
Normative growth trajectories of fetal brain regions validated by satisfactory maturation of neurodevelopmental domains at 2 years of age.
Madeleine K Wyburd1, Stephen H Kennedy2, Michelle Fernandes2,3,4, Nicola K Dinsdale5, Linde S Hesse5, Robert B Gunier6, Leila Cheikh Ismail7, Eric O Ohuma8, Michael G Gravett9, Manorama Purwar10, Wu Qingqing11, Adele Winsey2,4, Enrico Bertino12, Yasmin Jaffer13, Maria Carvalho14, Fernando C Barros15, Alan Stein16,17,18, Alison J Noble19, Zoltán Molnár20, Mark Jenkinson21,22,23, Thomas E Nichols21,24, Stephen Smith21, Zulfiqar A Bhutta25,26, Aris T Papageorghiou2,4, Jose Villar2,4, Ana I L Namburete27,28
1Oxford Machine Learning in Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom. madeleine.wyburd@cs.ox.ac.uk.
2Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
3Department of Paediatrics, Institute of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
4Oxford Maternal & Perinatal Health Institute, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
5Oxford Machine Learning in Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
6School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States of America.
7Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
8Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
9Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States of America.
10Nagpur INTERGROWTH-21st Research Centre, Ketkar Hospital, Nagpur, India.
11School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
12Dipartimento di Scienze Pediatriche e dell'Adolescenza, SCDU Neonatologia, Universita di Torino, Turin, Italy.
13Department of Family and Community Health, Ministry of Health, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
14Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya.
15Post-graduate Course in Health in the Life Cycle, Universidade Católica de Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil.
16Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
17African Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
18MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
19Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
20Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
21Oxford Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (OxCIN), FMRIB Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCN), University of Oxford, JR Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom.
22Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML), School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
23South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), Adelaide, Australia.
24Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
25Center for Global Child Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
26Institute for Global Health and Development at Aga Khan University, South-Central Asia & East Africa, Karachi, Pakistan.
27Oxford Machine Learning in Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom. ana.namburete@cs.ox.ac.uk.
28Oxford Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (OxCIN), FMRIB Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCN), University of Oxford, JR Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom. ana.namburete@cs.ox.ac.uk.
Abstract
We previously constructed a qualitative, 3D ultrasound derived atlas of the normative spatiotemporal dynamics of fetal brain maturation. Here, using the same healthy multi-national cohort, we applied deep learning methods to 4205 fetal brain scans from 18-27 weeks' gestation, to produce an extensive, quantitative description of the growth of 16 fetal brain structures associated with satisfactory d…
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