Scanning Dos and Don'ts: Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Children Aged 3 to 5 Years to Assess Brain Structure and Function

Early childhood (3 to 5 years of age) is a period marked by significant changes in the brain. This development underlies age-related improvements in several domains - including language, memory, and socioemotional skills. However, assessing brain structure and function during this period using MRI poses several challenges. For example, difficulty remaining still, maintaining attention for long periods and non-compliance in performing behavioral responses in the scanner are particularly prevalent issues. Technological advances in neuroimaging techniques over the past decade have significantly improved success rates for pediatric neuroimaging studies. For example, shorter scan durations and real-time monitoring and correction of motion during scanning have proven especially valuable in acquiring reliable data. However, developmental researchers must still be creative to adequately prepare young participants for the scanning environment and, subsequently, ensure the data acquired can be used to address the questions of interest. The success of these sessions has become paramount with the onset of large, multi-site consortium studies, such as the HEALthy Child and Brain Development study, which seek to track normative and atypical brain development across the first years of life. To this end, the current report provides a pediatric neuroimaging protocol to improve young children's scanning experience and developmental neuroimaging data quality results from four neuroimaging studies conducted in a single laboratory over the past 11 years. These results provide an indication of expected scan preparation time, total scan duration, and success rates for structural and functional scans in young children when using this protocol.