Healthy Brain Network Biobank: Bringing Big Data to Child Mental Health

The Healthy Brain Network Biobank is the most ambitious and comprehensive collection of data in the neuropsychiatry field, and it’s now open for business. The Biobank houses 664 sets of psychiatric, behavioral, cognitive and lifestyle data alongside structural MRI, resting state fMRI, EEG and much more.

The goal is simple: open sharing with multidisciplinary scientists to accelerate discovery in developmental neuroscience. It’s already being called “the mother-load.” Visit the Biobank website or download and read the manuscript to learn what data are being collected and explore sample and data quality characteristics.

If you aren’t a data scientist but you want to support the Healthy Brain Network project, we have a vital job for you: help connect families with the study’s no-cost, comprehensive evaluations. Participating families are evaluated by licensed clinicians and receive a feedback report detailing the results of their evaluation. If indicated, we’ll refer them for treatment and services within their community. Ninty-eight out of 100 families surveyed after participating said they would participate again. You can read about what’s involved for participating families on the participant website.

The Healthy Brain Network is not the only open science initiative to come out of the Child Mind Institute. Read about our other open-source initiatives and see how else we’re making a change in the culture of science, and how you can get involved.