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Children
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Advanced Neuroimaging for Personalized Treatment Strategies in Children with Neurological...
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Advanced Neuroimaging for Personalized Treatment Strategies in Children with Neurological Disorders

A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Radiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 July 2026 | Viewed by 559

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Josue Luiz Dalboni da Rocha

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Radiology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA
Interests: pediatric neuroimaging; structural, functional, and diffusion MRI; quantitative imaging biomarkers; brain connectivity and network analysis; machine learning and AI in medical imaging; pediatric neuro-oncology; neurodevelopmental disorders; imaging-based precision medicine
Dr. Samuel Stuart McAfee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Diagnostic Imaging, St. Jude Children Research’s Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA
Interests: diagnostic imaging; neuroscience; posterior fossa syndrome; brain function

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Advances in pediatric neuroimaging over the past decades have profoundly improved our understanding of brain development and injury in children with neurological disorders. However, in routine practice, imaging is still too often descriptive, and its potential to guide individualized therapies, reduce treatment-related toxicity, and predict long-term neurocognitive outcomes remains underused.

This Special Issue aims to showcase studies that close this translational gap. We particularly welcome cutting-edge work leveraging multimodal MRI, PET, radiomics, radiogenomics, and artificial intelligence, or machine learning, to refine diagnosis, risk stratification, treatment planning, and response monitoring in conditions such as pediatric brain tumors, epilepsy, and neurodevelopmental disorders. We are soliciting original research articles, innovative methodological papers, and comprehensive or systematic reviews that integrate imaging with clinical, genomic, or neuropsychological data and clearly articulate their implications for precision medicine in pediatric neurology and neuro-oncology.

Dr. Josue Luiz Dalboni da Rocha
Dr. Samuel Stuart McAfee
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • structural MRI
  • functional MRI
  • diffusion MRI
  • quantitative imaging biomarkers
  • machine learning
  • pediatric neuro-oncology
  • neurodevelopmental disorders
  • precision medicine

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 3050 KB  
Article
Feasibility of Non-Sedate Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Children with Cerebral Palsy: Tolerance and Structural Analysis Considerations
by Stefanie S. Bradley, Elizabeth Pulcine, F. Virginia Wright, Manohar Shroff, Kevin Chung and Tom Chau
Children 2026, 13(4), 560; https://doi.org/10.3390/children13040560 - 17 Apr 2026
Viewed by 360
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Non-sedate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be challenging for young children with neuromotor disabilities, often resulting in motion-degraded images that complicate interpretation in the context of underlying neuropathology. This study aimed to characterize tolerance factors and barriers related to awake MRI [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Non-sedate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be challenging for young children with neuromotor disabilities, often resulting in motion-degraded images that complicate interpretation in the context of underlying neuropathology. This study aimed to characterize tolerance factors and barriers related to awake MRI of the pediatric brain and to examine additional considerations in analyzing structural scans affected by motion and pathology. Methods: 10 children (mean age 5y9m; 5 girls; GMFCS level IV) with cerebral palsy (CP) underwent non-sedate 3T MRI of the brain. Tolerance factors and challenges were documented. MRI quality and automated structural preprocessing with Freesurfer (FS) v.8.0 were reviewed by a pediatric neuroradiologist and neurologist. To assess the impact of motion, automated basal ganglia segmentation was compared with manual segmentation. Segmentation accuracy was characterized using Dice Coefficient (D). Results: Five participants (50%) tolerated non-sedate structural MRI, although two of them were unable to remain still. Factors affecting MRI tolerance included sensitivity to scanner noise (n = 4), hyperkinetic movement (n = 2), difficulty with positioning/padding (n = 4), fear of clinical environment (n = 2) or confined scanner interior (n = 2), and earbud discomfort (n = 3). Automated structural preprocessing with FS yielded discrepancies in gray-white matter boundaries in motion-degraded scans, necessitating manual correction. Automated segmentation of motion-compromised scans closely agreed with manual delineation of the caudate (D ≥ 0.85) and putamen (D ≥ 0.78), while the pallidum was least reproducible (D = 0.58). Conclusions: Tailored acquisition and processing strategies are necessary to support non-sedate MRI in children with CP, preserve downstream neuroimaging analyses, and promote inclusion of underrepresented populations in research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Neuroimaging for Personalized Treatment Strategies in Children with Neurological Disorders)
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