ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Neurology
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Insights into Pediatric Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Autism Spectrum Disorder and its ComorbiditiesView all 7 articles
First Establishment of Population-Specific Brain Volume Reference Standards for Chinese Children and Adolescents: An AI-Based Segmentation Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
- 2Hangzhou Xiaoshan District Chinese Medicine Hospital, Hangzhou, China
- 3Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
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Objective: To establish the first AI-based, population-specific reference standards for brain structural volumes in healthy Chinese children and adolescents, and to elucidate unique developmental trajectories that may differ from existing Western norms. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1100 healthy participants aged 6–18 years were enrolled. T1-weighted images were acquired using a 3.0T MRI scanner, and regional brain volumes were quantified using an AI-based automated segmentation tool.. Multiple comparisons were corrected using the false discovery rate (FDR) method. Differences in brain volume by sex, age, and hemisphere, as well as correlations with age, were analyzed. Results: After controlling for age, males exhibited larger total intracranial volume (P < 0.001) and left cerebral white matter volume (P = 0.015), whereas females showed larger volumes in the bilateral parahippocampal gyri (left: P = 0.023; right: P = 0.011) and left fusiform gyrus (P = 0.026). Significant hemispheric asymmetries were observed in multiple regions. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and bilateral white matter volumes were positively correlated with age (P < 0.001), while volumes in certain frontal and temporal lobe regions, as well as subcortical structures, were negatively correlated with age (P < 0.05). Conclusion: This study is the first to establish reference values for brain volume in healthy Chinese children and adolescents aged 6–18 years using AI-based automated segmentation. It reveals sex-and age-related differences in brain structural development, thereby providing a valuable quantitative reference for future research on brain development deviations. These population-specific standards may provide a theoretical foundation for improving diagnostic accuracy in Chinese children, though their actual utility in reducing misclassification requires future empirical validation.
Keywords: automated brain segmentation, brain structure volume, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Children and adolescents, Developmental Neuroscience
Received: 12 Oct 2025; Accepted: 26 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qian, Liao and Cheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jihao Cheng
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