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Open Imaging Index
MRI Brain

SALD

Southwest University Adult Lifespan Dataset

T1-weighted MPRAGE and 8-minute resting-state fMRI from 494 healthy Chinese adults aged 19 to 80, scanned at 3 T at Southwest University, Chongqing. Shared openly through INDI in BIDS format with age, sex, handedness and QA measures.

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Overview

The Southwest University Adult Lifespan Dataset (SALD) is a cross-sectional sample of healthy adults covering ages 19 to 80, collected by Jiang Qiu's group at the Brain Imaging Center of Southwest University in Chongqing, China, between 2010 and 2015. It was released through the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI) and described in a Scientific Data paper in 2018. Its purpose is to chart how brain structure and resting-state function change across adulthood in a non-Western sample and to give an independent set for replicating ageing findings.

Composition

The release holds 494 participants. Every participant has a T1-weighted anatomical image, and 493 of them also have an eight-minute resting-state fMRI run. Young adults were drawn from the university's student body, many middle-aged participants from its staff and the rest from nearby communities, so women in their twenties are overrepresented. A spreadsheet gives age, sex and Edinburgh handedness scores plus quality measures from the Preprocessed Connectomes Project QA protocol for each scan. Data are in BIDS on a public S3 bucket and as ten compressed archives of about 23.5 GB in total.

Acquisition

All scans come from one 3 T Siemens Trio. The sagittal MPRAGE has 176 slices of 1 mm isotropic voxels, TR 1900 ms, TE 2.52 ms and TI 900 ms. The resting-state run has 242 gradient-echo EPI volumes of 32 axial slices, TR 2000 ms, TE 30 ms and 3.4 x 3.4 mm in-plane voxels. Participants kept their eyes closed. Anatomical images were defaced with pydeface.

Annotations

There are no image labels. Phenotypes are limited to age, sex and handedness, with automated QA metrics.

Known limitations

  • Single site and single scanner, so it offers no scanner variability.
  • The age and sex distribution is uneven: few participants in their thirties and only one above 79.
  • The paper gives 308 females and 187 males, one more than the 494 participants. The released spreadsheet lists 307 females.
  • The paper reports a 90 degree flip angle for the MPRAGE, while the scanner protocol sheet on the release page shows 9 degrees.
  • All scans were released regardless of quality. Users choose their own exclusion criteria from the QA metrics.
  • Task fMRI was acquired for subgroups but is not part of the release.

Cohort

Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 494 subjects.

Sex

  • Female 307 62%
  • Male 187 38%

Age

mean 45.2± 17.4 · range 19 to 80
0
50
100
147
10-1920-2930-3940-4950-5960-6970-7980-89

Age by sex

Reported cross table. Missing cells were not published (fewer than 10 subjects or not reported).

Female Male
  • 26
    70-79
    15
  • 43
    60-69
    35
  • 72
    50-59
    40
  • 48
    40-49
    21
  • 22
    30-39
    20
  • 92
    20-29
    55

Contrast combinations

How many subjects have exactly each set of contrasts.

T1wboldSubjects with exactly this set
493
1

Contrast / sequence

subjects, values can overlap

  • T1-weighted 494 100%
  • BOLD fMRI 493 100%

Condition

subjects, values can overlap

  • Healthy control 494 100%

Scanner vendor

subjects

  • Siemens Healthineers 494 100%

Field strength

subjects

  • 3 T 494 100%

Country

subjects

  • China 494 100%

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
Open download

Download without an account

Access page

1000 Functional Connectomes Project / INDI terms (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial, no version stated)

Non-commercial use only, after registering with the 1000 Functional Connectomes Project on NITRC. The NITRC project lists a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license without a version: derived works must credit the source and stay non-commercial but need not use the same license.

The release page states "Creative Commons License: Attribution - Non-Commercial" as its usage agreement. The images and the phenotype file download from the public fcp-indi S3 bucket without an account. The data descriptor asks users to cite it.

Original license text Version read: License field "Attribution Non-Commercial" on the NITRC fcon_1000 project page (no Creative Commons version named) and the access statement on the INDI home page, read 2026-10-08 Checked 2026-10-08

What you can do

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

What you can share

  • Not stated
  • Conditional
  • Share trained models Not stated

What you must do

  • Yes
  • No
  • Conditional
  • Ethics approval No
  • Manuscript review No
  • Release code No
  • Return results No
  • Delete after use No

Limits

  • No
  • Location limits No

Commercial license: Not stated

Citation

Wei D, Zhuang K, Ai L, Chen Q, Yang W, Liu W, Wang K, Sun J, Qiu J. Structural and functional brain scans from the cross-sectional Southwest University adult lifespan dataset. Scientific Data 5, 180134 (2018). doi:10.1038/sdata.2018.134

All numbers

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

MeasureBreakdownValueSource
Subjectstotal 494wei2018
Methods: Participants
Subjectscondition=healthy
healthy adults; current psychiatric or neurological disorders were exclusion criteria
494wei2018
Abstract
Subjectscountry=CN
all scanned at Southwest University in Chongqing
494wei2018
Abstract
Subjectsfield_strength=3
3.0 T Siemens Trio
494wei2018
Methods: Image Acquisitions
Subjectsvendor=siemens 494wei2018
Methods: Image Acquisitions
Subjectscontrast=T1w
MPRAGE
494sald-sub-information
columns Sub_ID and T1Img
Subjectscontrast=bold
8-minute resting-state scan; one subject has no functional image
493sald-sub-information
columns Sub_ID and FunImg
Subjectscontrast_set=bold+T1w 493sald-sub-information
columns FunImg and T1Img
Subjectscontrast_set=T1w 1sald-sub-information
columns FunImg and T1Img
Subjectssex=female
the paper states 308 females and 187 males, which adds up to 495
307sald-sub-information
column Sex
Subjectssex=male 187sald-sub-information
column Sex
Subjectsage=10-19 4sald-sub-information
column Age
Subjectsage=20-29 147sald-sub-information
column Age
Subjectsage=30-39 42sald-sub-information
column Age
Subjectsage=40-49 69sald-sub-information
column Age
Subjectsage=50-59 112sald-sub-information
column Age
Subjectsage=60-69 78sald-sub-information
column Age
Subjectsage=70-79 41sald-sub-information
column Age
Subjectsage=80-89 1sald-sub-information
column Age
Subjectssex=female;age=20-29 92sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=female;age=30-39 22sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=female;age=40-49 48sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=female;age=50-59 72sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=female;age=60-69 43sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=female;age=70-79 26sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=male;age=20-29 55sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=male;age=30-39 20sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=male;age=40-49 21sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=male;age=50-59 40sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=male;age=60-69 35sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Subjectssex=male;age=70-79 15sald-sub-information
columns Sex and Age
Minimum agetotal 19wei2018
Methods: Participants
Maximum agetotal 80wei2018
Methods: Participants
Mean agetotal 45.2sald-sub-information
column Age
Median agetotal 48sald-sub-information
column Age
Age SDtotal 17.4sald-sub-information
column Age

Sources

The keys used in the table above.