BRAIN BUILDING BEATS · THE BEAT
These are age-informed educational illustrations. Their colors highlight a research focus, not measured brain activity, growth speed or a child's developmental readiness. Framing varies to show each region; image size is not a measurement of growth.
Presentation updated October 2026: neutral context, graphite canvas, muted-gold research highlights and Instrument Sans labels. Gold identifies selected anatomy, not measured activity or a distinct biological tissue class. Anatomical meshes, parcel selections and tissue anchors are preserved. Mobile uses separate transparent, closely framed renders without embedded labels.
Derived from the M-CRIB atlas by Alexander and colleagues, Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Official atlas repository; MRI source; M-CRIB 2.0 labels. Source data are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Changes include surface extraction, smoothing, age registration, interpolation, illustrative overall scaling, recoloring, transparent context, camera framing, labels and animation. The email stills use square framing and native Blender labels, with paired captions in opposite corners. Age, research context and detailed region descriptions appear as live text beside the illustrations. The captioned month-one and month-nine GIFs retain their three-region layout.
Age registration uses MNI infant atlases from the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University. Geometry is registered to five age bands and interpolated between display anchors; these are not exact-month scans or a clinical growth standard.
The illustrative size curve draws on Holland et al. (2014) and Knickmeyer et al. (2008). It is a constructed cross-study illustration.
Copyright (C) 1993–2004 Vladimir S. Fonov, Louis Collins, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University. Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies. The authors and McGill University make no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided “as is” without express or implied warranty. The authors are not responsible for any data loss, equipment damage, property loss, or injury to subjects or patients resulting from the use or misuse of this software package.