Chenonceau: mesoscopic MRI deep phenotyping of a post-mortem human brain at 7 and 11.7 Tesla

Legeay, S.; Beaujoin, J.; Yebga Hot, R.; Popov, A.; Uszynski, I.; Herlin, B.; Poupon, F.; Maldonado, I. L.; Destrieux, C.; Poupon, C.

doi:10.64898/2026.05.26.726838

bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.05.26.726838

Chenonceau: mesoscopic MRI deep phenotyping of a post-mortem human brain at 7 and 11.7 Tesla

Legeay, S.·Beaujoin, J.·Yebga Hot, R.·Popov, A.·Uszynski, I.·Herlin, B.·Poupon, F.·Maldonado, I. L.·Destrieux, C.·Poupon, C.

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Abstract

The human brains organization, from macroscopic connectivity to microscopic architecture, has never been mapped across multiple modalities in a single post-mortem specimen at mesoscopic resolution. Here we present Chenonceau, a complete post-mortem human brain atlas acquired using two ultra-high-field preclinical MRI systems. Combining anatomical, diffusion, and quantitative MRI from 100 to 200 m isotropic resolution, the 8000-hour acquisition campaign overcomes the fundamental trade-off between spatial resolution, tissue coverage, and multimodality that commonly constrains MRI neuroimaging in humans. The resulting open-access dataset integrates the first whole-brain mesoscopic connectome along with cortical lamination, myelo-, and cyto-architecture mapping. Importantly, the spatial and angular resolutions achieved reveal the intracortical connectivity at the whole-brain scale. Bridging the scale gap between in vivo imaging and post-mortem microscopic datasets, the Chenonceau brain atlas establishes a foundational reference for joint mesoscale analysis of human brain structure, connectivity, and microarchitecture. The dataset is openly available on the EBRAINS portal.

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Legeay, S., Beaujoin, J., Yebga Hot, R., Popov, A., Uszynski, I., Herlin, B., Poupon, F., Maldonado, I. L., Destrieux, C., Poupon, C.. 2026-05-29. Chenonceau: mesoscopic MRI deep phenotyping of a post-mortem human brain at 7 and 11.7 Tesla. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.26.726838

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