A Two-Stage Multi-Modal MRI Framework for Lifespan Brain Age Prediction

TL;DR

This paper introduces a two-stage multi-modal MRI framework that improves lifespan brain age prediction by integrating brain morphology and white matter data across different developmental stages.

Contribution

The novel two-stage architecture processes modalities independently and combines them via late fusion, enabling accurate lifespan brain age assessment across diverse ages.

Findings

Effective in capturing macro- and microstructural brain changes across lifespan

Classifies developmental stages before age estimation, improving accuracy

Supports diverse age ranges with multi-modal MRI data

Abstract

The accurate quantification of brain age from MRI has emerged as an important biomarker of brain health. However, existing approaches are often restricted to narrow age ranges and single-modality MRI data, limiting their capacity to capture the coordinated macro- and microstructural changes that unfold across the human lifespan. To address these limitations, we developed a multi-modal brain age framework to characterize the integrated evolution of brain morphology and white matter organization. Our model adopts a two-stage architecture, where modalities are processed independently and integrated via late fusion in both stages: first to classify each subject into one of six developmental stages, and then to estimate age within the predicted stage. This design enables a unified and lifespan-spanning assessment of brain maturity across diverse developmental periods.