A sex-balanced longitudinal developmental task-free fMRI rat dataset

Abstract Here we present a preclinical longitudinal developmental dataset spanning pre-puberty (juvenile) to early adulthood in Wistar rats. Thirty-six rats (18 female) were scanned during five sessions at approximately postnatal day 28, 35, 49, 70 and 91. A standardised consensus protocol was used for animal sedation and MRI data acquisition (structural MRI and resting-state fMRI). The dataset also includes daily body weight measurements, day of puberty onset, and daily cytological smear images for oestrous tracking. This openly available dataset addresses the need for sex-balanced developmental preclinical datasets spanning puberty and enables researchers to investigate longitudinal brain functional developmental trajectories and Sex As a Biological Variable (SABV).