Skip to content
Open Imaging Index
MRI Brain

Yale Reading Dataset (ds005339)

Yale_reading_dataset

Structural, diffusion and functional brain MRI of children, adolescents and young adults across a wide range of reading ability, pooled from reading development and reading disability studies to relate brain structure and function to reading skill and age.

Go to dataset Edit Report

Overview

The Yale reading dataset pools brain MRI from several reading research projects of one lab, whose work was supported by NICHD grants, into a single BIDS collection on OpenNeuro (ds005339). Its purpose is to let researchers study how brain structure and function relate to reading skill and age, and how good and poor readers differ. The uploaders describe the wider database as covering ages 5 to 30, from children who cannot yet read to skilled adult readers, with behavioural, cognitive and background measures collected alongside the scans. Snapshot 1.0.0, released in April 2026, is the first and so far only version; the README says a white paper will follow once all data are uploaded.

Composition

Snapshot 1.0.0 has 223 subjects and 321 scanning sessions. Every subject has a T1-weighted scan, 217 have BOLD runs and 179 have diffusion scans; 177 have all three. Counted from the file tree there are 325 T1-weighted volumes, 460 diffusion volumes and 1,899 BOLD runs. The functional runs cover five task labels: sj, story, fastloc, srtt and a resting-state run. The README states that the full database holds over 1,000 scans from 700 people, so this snapshot is a partial upload.

Acquisition

All T1-weighted scans with scanner metadata come from 3 T Siemens systems, mostly TrioTim with a smaller share on Skyra. T1-weighted images are sagittal 3D MPRAGE. Going by the institution field in the sidecars, about 230 T1-weighted volumes were acquired at Yale (Magnetic Resonance Research Center and School of Medicine) and about 90 in Jerusalem (Hadassah Ein Kerem and Hebrew University). The data were converted to BIDS with ezBIDS.

Annotations

There are no image labels. Task runs come with BIDS events files, and diffusion scans with gradient tables.

Known limitations

  • The snapshot has no participants.tsv and no phenotype files, so age, sex, reading scores and diagnostic group are not available in this release.
  • Session labels are not uniform across subjects (for example ses-1, ses-001 and ses-011).
  • The README does not describe the tasks behind the sj, story, fastloc and srtt labels.
  • One T1-weighted sidecar carries no scanner fields.

Cohort

Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 223 subjects.

Contrast / sequence

Groups can overlap

  • T1-weighted 223 100%
  • BOLD fMRI 217 97%
  • Diffusion-weighted 179 80%

anat folders, func folders, dwi folders in File tree and T1w JSON sidecars of ds005339 snapshot 1.0.0 (CC0), NIfTI files counted per subject and session folder, sidecar fields InstitutionName, Manufacturer and MagneticFieldStrength

Contrast / sequence by field strength

Scans

Reported cross table. A dot marks a cell the source does not give.

3 T
T1-weighted324

T1w sidecars: MagneticFieldStrength in File tree and T1w JSON sidecars of ds005339 snapshot 1.0.0 (CC0), NIfTI files counted per subject and session folder, sidecar fields InstitutionName, Manufacturer and MagneticFieldStrength

Country by contrast / sequence

Scans

Reported cross table. A dot marks a cell the source does not give.

T1-weighted
United States232
Israel92

T1w sidecars: InstitutionName in File tree and T1w JSON sidecars of ds005339 snapshot 1.0.0 (CC0), NIfTI files counted per subject and session folder, sidecar fields InstitutionName, Manufacturer and MagneticFieldStrength

Contrast / sequence by scanner vendor

Scans

Reported cross table. A dot marks a cell the source does not give.

Siemens Healthineers
T1-weighted324

T1w sidecars: Manufacturer in File tree and T1w JSON sidecars of ds005339 snapshot 1.0.0 (CC0), NIfTI files counted per subject and session folder, sidecar fields InstitutionName, Manufacturer and MagneticFieldStrength

Contrast combinations

How many subjects have exactly each set of contrasts.

T1wdwiboldSubjects with exactly this set
177
40
4
2

subject folders in File tree and T1w JSON sidecars of ds005339 snapshot 1.0.0 (CC0), NIfTI files counted per subject and session folder, sidecar fields InstitutionName, Manufacturer and MagneticFieldStrength

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

Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal

Public domain dedication. Do anything with the data, including commercial use, without asking and without having to give credit.

dataset_description.json of snapshot 1.0.0 states "License" CC0.

Original license text Version read: 1.0 Checked 2026-10-07

What you can do

  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes

What you can share

  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes

What you must do

  • No
  • Share alike No
  • No
  • No
  • Manuscript review No
  • Release code No
  • Return results No
  • Delete after use No

Limits

  • No
  • Location limits No

Citation

Koirala N, Gracco V. Yale_reading_dataset. OpenNeuro, version 1.0.0 (2026). doi:10.18112/openneuro.ds005339.v1.0.0

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.