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Open Imaging Index
MRI PET Brain

Insight 46

Insight 46: neuroscience sub-study of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (1946 British birth cohort)

Longitudinal PET-MRI sub-study of 502 members of the 1946 British birth cohort, scanned around age 70 and again two years later on one 3 T PET/MR, with amyloid PET, structural, susceptibility, diffusion and perfusion MRI and life course data. Access by application to NSHD.

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Overview

Insight 46 is a neuroimaging sub-study of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD), the cohort born in England, Scotland and Wales in one week of March 1946. Because all participants are almost the same age and have decades of earlier health, cognitive and social data, it is used to study preclinical Alzheimer's disease, cerebrovascular disease and brain ageing in the general population. The MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL manages data access.

Composition

Phase 1 (2015 to 2018) enrolled 502 cohort members (256 male, 246 female), drawn at random from those who had attended the age 60 to 64 clinic and had the required life course data. Median age at the first visit was 70.7 years (range 69.2 to 71.8). 471 completed the PET/MRI scan. Phase 2, about two years later, scanned 369, and 367 have PET and MRI from both phases. Phase 3 started in 2021, opened recruitment to other cohort members and is expected to finish in 2026; by June 2023 it had 111 amyloid and 109 tau PET/MRI scans.

Acquisition

All PET/MRI in phases 1 and 2 used one Siemens Biograph mMR 3 T PET/MR at University College London Hospitals. The protocol has 3D T1-weighted MPRAGE, 3D T2 and 3D FLAIR at 1.1 mm isotropic, resting-state fMRI, multi-shell diffusion, pseudo-continuous ASL and a three-echo 3D gradient echo (0.86 x 0.86 x 1.5 mm) from which T2*-weighted images, T2* maps, SWI and quantitative susceptibility maps are made. Amyloid PET used florbetapir in phases 1 and 2. Phase 3 uses florbetaben for amyloid and MK-6240 for tau, and adds MP2RAGE, multi-delay ASL and IVIM on a separate 3 T Siemens Prisma.

Annotations

No manual image labels are published. The protocol describes visual amyloid PET reads, SUVR, automated brain and hippocampal segmentation, and visual rating plus automated quantification of white matter hyperintensities and microbleeds. The NSHD website lists derived variables such as amyloid status, brain volumes and white matter hyperintensity volume.

Known limitations

  • The NSHD enrolled only white singleton births from 1946, so other ages and ethnic groups are not covered.
  • Participants were more educated and of higher socioeconomic position than the cohort members not recruited, and had to be fit to travel to London.
  • The data are offered through the NSHD variable request process. Whether raw images can be requested is not stated publicly.

Cohort

Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 502 subjects.

Sex

  • Male 256 51%
  • Female 246 49%

Modality

subjects

  • PET 471 94%
  • MRI 471 94%

PET tracer

subjects

  • [18F]florbetapir 471 94%

Scanner vendor

subjects

  • Siemens Healthineers 471 94%

Field strength

subjects

  • 3 T 471 94%

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

Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL, Framework Data Sharing Agreement (NSHD)

Signed between UCL and the researcher's institution after the NSHD Data Sharing Committee approves a project. Non-commercial research within the approved project only, no passing on without written consent, manuscripts to UCL ten business days before submission, derived data returned to UCL and all data deleted at the end. Processing outside the UK needs to be agreed in the contract.

The NSHD website lists derived Insight 46 variables (amyloid status, brain volumes, white matter hyperintensity volume) as available. Whether raw images can be requested is not stated.

Original license text Version read: Framework Data Sharing Agreement, updated 18 November 2025 Checked 2026-10-08

What you can do

  • No
  • Not stated
  • Conditional
  • Conditional

What you can share

  • No
  • No
  • Share trained models Not stated

What you must do

  • Yes
  • Share alike No
  • Yes
  • Conditional
  • Yes
  • No
  • Yes
  • Yes

Limits

  • Yes
  • Conditional

Citation

Lane CA, Parker TD, Cash DM, et al. Study protocol: Insight 46 - a neuroscience sub-study of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development. BMC Neurology 17:75 (2017). doi:10.1186/s12883-017-0846-x. NSHD asks publications to also cite the NSHD dataset DOIs that match the years of data used.

All numbers

Every number on this page, as stored in stats.csv, with its source.

MeasureBreakdownValueSource
Subjectstotal
phase 1 clinic visit (2015 to 2018); the website gives the same number
502murraysmith2024
Table 1
Subjectssex=male
phase 1 clinic visit
256murraysmith2024
Table 1
Subjectssex=female
phase 1 clinic visit
246murraysmith2024
Table 1
Subjectsmodality=PT
completed the phase 1 amyloid PET/MRI scan
471murraysmith2024
Table 1
Subjectsmodality=MR
completed the phase 1 amyloid PET/MRI scan
471murraysmith2024
Table 1
Subjectstracer=florbetapir
completed the phase 1 amyloid PET/MRI scan
471murraysmith2024
Table 1
Subjectssex=male;modality=PT
phase 1 PET/MRI scan
241murraysmith2024
Table 1
Subjectssex=female;modality=PT
phase 1 PET/MRI scan
230murraysmith2024
Table 1
Subjectsfield_strength=3
phase 1 PET/MRI scan; all imaging on a 3 T Siemens Biograph mMR
471murraysmith2024
Table 1
Subjectsvendor=siemens
phase 1 PET/MRI scan
471murraysmith2024
Table 1
Studiestracer=florbetapir
sum of the disjoint phase 1 (471) and phase 2 (369) amyloid PET/MRI scans
840murraysmith2024
Table 1
Studiestracer=florbetaben
phase 3 amyloid PET/MRI scans completed as of June 2023; phase 3 is ongoing
111murraysmith2024
Table 1
Studiestracer=mk6240
phase 3 tau PET/MRI scans completed as of June 2023; phase 3 is ongoing
109murraysmith2024
Table 1
Median agetotal
at the phase 1 clinic visit
70.7murraysmith2024
Table 1
Minimum agetotal
at the phase 1 clinic visit
69.2murraysmith2024
Table 1
Maximum agetotal
at the phase 1 clinic visit
71.8murraysmith2024
Table 1

Sources

The keys used in the table above.