Now on Brain-CODE: A new CP-NET multi-modal dataset on childhood cerebral palsy
6 octobre 2026
The Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) has released a new controlled dataset from the Cerebral Palsy Integrated Neuroscience Discovery Network (CP-NET), an OBI Integrated Discovery Program, offering insights into how cerebral palsy affects children from the preschool years into school age.
This deeply phenotyped resource draws on CP-NET's Clinical Database, following children with all subtypes of CP born after January 1, 2009 from across Ontario, assessed first at preschool-age and again at school age.
This dataset is ideal for researchers in cerebral palsy, pediatric rehabilitation, developmental neuroscience, genomics, neuroimaging, health services research, and beyond.
What's included:
- Clinical risk factors — neonatal and obstetric risk factors from obstetrical and neonatal health charts, plus diagnosis and comorbidity information from rehabilitation charts and parental interviews
- Genomics — whole genome sequencing from saliva samples of the index child and both biological parents
- Neuroimaging — standardized coding of clinically acquired scans
- Neurodevelopmental outcomes — gross motor, fine motor, communication, cognitive abilities and pain, including a physician-administered neurological exam
- Psychosocial and participation measures —mental health and wellbeing of both child and family, sleep, quality of life and participation
Potential use cases:
- Model how neonatal and obstetric risk factors relate to later developmental outcomes
- Identify genetic contributors to CP subtypes using family trio sequencing
- Compare developmental trajectories from preschool-age to school-age across CP subtypes
- Explore relationships between imaging findings and motor, participation and quality of life outcomes
- Examine how a child's function relates to family wellbeing, sleep and pain
Led by Dr. Darcy Fehlings at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, the CP-NET Clinical Database Multimodal Release' dataset brings together clinical, genetic, neurological and psychosocial measures in a single resource, offering a rare view of how these factors relate to one another — and how those relationships shift as a child grows.
The research team designed this comprehensive collection to link early risk and biology with real-world outcomes, helping researchers look past motor function alone to how CP shapes communication, cognition, pain, participation and family wellbeing.
As part of OBI's commitment to open science, these data are now available on Brain-CODE, OBI's state-of-the-art neuroinformatics platform, providing researchers worldwide with a powerful resource to advance discoveries in childhood cerebral palsy. By bringing the biological, developmental and social dimensions of the condition together in one resource, this dataset can support earlier identification, more personalized rehabilitation, and improved outcomes for children and families impacted by cerebral palsy.