Fetal, Infant, Toddler Neuroimaging Group (FIT'NG): Uniting Clinical, Computational, Engineering, and Neuroscience to advance discoveries for the young child

Neurodevelopmental disorders, including psychiatric symptoms and learning disabilities, and substance use, remain public health concerns as they can lead to suboptimal educational and occupational outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. Human brain development is a complex process that begins in the weeks following conception and undergoes rapid development through the first two years of postnatal life. Advancing understanding of early neurodevelopmental processes, and the conditions which foster healthy versus maladaptive development, represents a critical means of addressing neurodevelopmental disorders. The rapidly growing field of fetal, infant, and toddler neuroimaging demonstrates potential to contribute to this area. Yet, a myriad of challenges hinder progress of the field including methodological issues related to data acquisition and processing; and rapid changes in available technology and tools with limited resources for dissemination to users. We considered the growing pains of the community and responded to the need for a bridge organization that brings together those with expertise in developmental neuroscience, clinical-science, and computational and biomedical engineering to facilitate advances in data quality and image processing tools for the young brain. The Fetal, Infant, and Toddler Neuroimaging Group (FIT’NG), a non-profit academic society established in 2018, aims to bring together interdisciplinary researchers with a focus on neurodevelopment during the first years of life. Our annual meeting focuses solely on this field, is essential to keep up with technological advances, establish and share best practices to address methodological challenges, and increase participation at every level. This R13 builds off our previously successful R13 (R13 HD108938), which helped us launch our first annual meeting in 2022 (Paris, France). In only our 2nd meeting (Santa Rosa, California, 2023), we had ~220 attendees, demonstrating its popularity and value. Over the past three years, our R13 has awarded financial support to attend our meeting to nearly 60 junior (i.e., students, post-docs) individuals. We propose a multi-year conference application renewal to provide a forum for investigators to exchange information, collaborate, and engage with other scientists conducting fetal, infant and toddler neuroimaging research.