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Open Imaging Index
MRI PET Brain

AIBL

Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Flagship Study of Ageing

Brain MRI and amyloid PET with demographic, cognitive and blood data from older Australians who are cognitively normal or have MCI or Alzheimer's dementia, followed to learn how Alzheimer's disease begins and progresses. The imaging subset is shared through the LONI IDA.

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Overview

AIBL is an observational cohort from Melbourne and Perth that follows older Australians to learn how Alzheimer's disease begins and progresses. It started in November 2006 with 1,112 people aged 60 and over and reassesses them every 18 months with cognitive tests, blood sampling, lifestyle questionnaires and, for a subset, brain MRI and amyloid PET. New participants were added over time to replace those lost to follow-up. Through an agreement with the Alzheimer's Association, the participants who have both MRI and PET are shared through the same LONI archive as ADNI, with their data mapped to the ADNI table structure.

Composition

A 2021 overview counts 2,359 participants: 1,487 cognitively normal, 413 with MCI, 441 with Alzheimer's dementia and 18 with other conditions at their first visit. 954 of them had at least one structural MRI and 2,336 MRI sessions had been acquired. The study website reports 3,045 participants as of February 2023. The LONI release covers only the imaged subset: about a quarter of the cohort up to the 36-month visit, then 250 MR/flutemetamol, 200 MR/florbetapir and 50 MR/PiB cases added at 54 months. Baseline, 18-month and 36-month data are released.

Acquisition

MRI came mainly from Siemens scanners: 3 T Trio and Skyra in Melbourne, 3 T Verio and 1.5 T Avanto in Perth. LONI holds raw DICOM only, and only the ADNI-compliant series: MPRAGE and axial PD/T2 TSE, plus MPRAGE and 3D T2 FLAIR at 54 months. Amyloid PET used PiB, florbetapir and flutemetamol, with PiB frames re-summed to the ADNI 50 to 70 minute window. Demographics, medical history, cognitive scores, APOE and blood results come as CSV tables.

Annotations

There are no image labels in the release, only diagnoses and the ADNI-style clinical tables. Outside the release, Yates et al. (2014) read 3 T susceptibility-weighted images of 174 AIBL participants for microbleeds at three time points.

Known limitations

  • Susceptibility-weighted, diffusion and ASL scans were acquired for a subset, but the LONI imaging page does not list them among the shared series.
  • Some early baseline scans lacked ADNI-compliant series and are not provided.
  • DICOM headers are not reliable for age and sex; the non-imaging tables are.
  • The cohort is mostly Caucasian and highly educated.

Cohort

Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 2,359 subjects.

Modality

  • MRI 954 40%

Table 10 in Fowler C et al. 2021, Fifteen years of the AIBL study, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Reports

Condition

Groups can overlap

  • Healthy control 1,487 63%
    Age mean 71.1
  • Alzheimer's disease 441 19%
    Age mean 75.1
  • Mild cognitive impairment 413 18%
    Age mean 73.8

Table 3 in Fowler C et al. 2021, Fifteen years of the AIBL study, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Reports

License and access

Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer

Access
Application

A research proposal is reviewed and approved

Access page

AIBL Data Use Agreement

Scientific investigation, teaching or clinical study planning only, never commercial use. Data stay within your organisation, proposed analyses must be notified in advance, every abstract and manuscript goes to the AIBL Management Committee before submission, and the data must be destroyed when the agreement ends.

Original license text Version read: Online agreement on the LONI IDA application page, read 2026-10-08 (the text states no version or date) Checked 2026-10-08

What you can do

  • No
  • Not stated
  • Not stated
  • Conditional
  • Conditional

What you can share

  • No
  • Not stated
  • Share trained models Not stated

What you must do

  • Yes
  • Share alike No
  • Yes
  • Conditional
  • Yes
  • Release code No
  • Conditional
  • Yes

Limits

  • Yes
  • No

Citation

Add "and the Australian Imaging Biomarkers and Lifestyle flagship study of ageing*" to the author line and use the acknowledgement and methods text given in the AIBL Data Use Agreement. Cohort reference: Ellis KA, et al. The Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) study of aging: methodology and baseline characteristics of 1112 individuals recruited for a longitudinal study of Alzheimer's disease. Int Psychogeriatr 21:672-687 (2009). doi:10.1017/S1041610209009405

Sources

Every number on this page comes from one of these documents. Each chart names the table or page it is taken from. The raw numbers are in stats.csv.