Click here to view more detailed schematics of the Data Release Schedule. Curated data are released annually via the NIMH Data Archive. Each release contains data on the full participant cohort. For more information about the types of data collected, please visit the Protocols page.
Data Sharing
Upcoming Events
Enhancing Prevention Research Related to Substance Use and Addiction: Identifying Research Gaps and Opportunities with ABCD Study Data
Virtual Meeting on Sep 28, 2021 from 12:00PM to 4:00PM EST
Click here to view a recording of the meeting.
Through presentations and discussions, this meeting connected the fields of epidemiology, developmental neuroscience, and prevention to improve the integration of ABCD findings into prevention intervention research. ABCD data can inform our understanding of heterogeneity associated with substance use risk as well as how that heterogeneity might be leveraged to inform the development of novel interventions and/or the adaptation and tailoring of current interventions to increase the number of youth served who benefit. The goal would be to stimulate data analyses that would lead to the development of targeted prevention intervention research. While there are many relevant key constructs to explore within the ABCD dataset, this initial meeting focused on trauma and self-regulation and their roles in substance use initiation. For each construct, we discussed its definition, how it is represented in the ABCD data, and existing or novel strategies for impacting the construct through intervention. Click here for the agenda.
In order to participate in the hands-on learning portion of the workshop, you must have approved access to the ABCD data repository on the NIMH Data Archive (NDA). Watch the following videos (NDA Overview and NDA Demo) to learn how to access ABCD data and submit your signed data use certification to the NDA.
Watch these brief videos to learn about the extensive ABCD Non-Imaging Assessments Protocol and the Data Exploration and Analysis Portal (DEAP):
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- ABCD Non-Imaging Assessments
- ABCD Design and DEAP Ontology
- DEAP Example Analysis
Please click here to view archived news and events.
Data Releases
The 5th ABCD Data Release (Data Release 5.0) will be published in late spring 2023 via the NIMH Data Archive (NDA). Tabulated imaging and non-imaging data will be hosted on the NDA ABCD “Supporting Documentation” page (one file per data table; packaged as one or several zip files). Because these data will not be housed in the NDA database, downloading individual data structures will not be possible as it was in past releases. ABCD will host a web application for investigators to explore and search the data dictionaries and facilitate their use of the flat files. As in past releases, neuroimaging and other file-based data (e.g., genomics; raw behavioral data) will be accessible via the NDA download manager tool. All data access information will be documented on the NDA ABCD Featured Dataset page and will include pointers to an external ABCD Study wiki where data release notes and general information about the data resource will be provided. The table below highlights key differences between the 4.0 and 5.0 data releases. Note that the Data Exploration and Analysis Portal (DEAP) will not be part of Data Release 5.0.
Data Release 5.0 will contain early longitudinal data on the full participant cohort, including 2-year follow-up neuroimaging data (second imaging timepoint), as well as follow-up phenotypic data through the 3-year visits. Interim data will be available for the 4-year follow-up visit, including some of the neuroimaging data. Also available will be ABCD derived scores from linked external school performance and environmental data, including the Stanford Education Data Archive, EPA Smart Location Database, American Community Survey Area Deprivation Index, FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, lead exposure risk and air pollution indices, among others. Smokescreen genotyping array data with TOPMed imputations will be available as well. These include common variations, as well as variations associated with addiction, smoking behavior, and nicotine metabolism.
The fourth annual curated ABCD Data Release 4.0 is available now on the NIMH Data Archive. In addition to baseline data on the full participant cohort (nearly 12,000 participants), Data Release 4.0 contains early longitudinal data, including 2-year follow-up neuroimaging data (second imaging timepoint), as well as follow-up phenotypic data for the 6-month, 1-year and 18-month visits on the full cohort. Interim data are also available for the 30-month, 3-year and 42-month visits. See table below. Smokescreen genotyping array data with TOPMed imputations are available as well. These include common variations, as well as variations associated with addiction, smoking behavior and nicotine metabolism. Also available are ABCD derived scores from linked external school performance and environmental data, including the Stanford Education Data Archive, EPA Smart Location Database, American Community Survey Area Deprivation Index, FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, lead exposure risk and air pollution indices, among others.
Also included in Data Release 4.0 are COVID supplemental survey data, consisting of survey responses from ABCD families about the impact of the pandemic on their lives. Surveys were sent electronically to all ABCD participants and their parent/guardian in May, June, August, October, and December of 2020, and March and May of 2021. Youth and parents/guardians were asked separately about school attendance and activities, sleep, daily routines, physical activity, mental health, screen time, racism/discrimination in relation to COVID-19, COVID attitudes and practices, and coping behaviors. In addition, when site and school closures began in March 2020, ABCD participants who had their ABCD-assigned activity tracker agreed to extend protocol wear of the device, contributing valuable objective physical activity, resting heart rate, and sleep data. Also included are COVID-19 geocoded metrics that describe the local environment for each participant, including unemployment data, COVID-19 prevalence, and social distancing metrics. Authorized users can obtain more information and access the updated data from https://nda.nih.gov/abcd. Full details are in the Release Notes for Data Release 4.0.
Researchers new to the NIMH Data Archive system interested in gaining access to the data can create an account here and follow the instructions to request access. Returning researchers can log into their account using the Login button.
Click here to view the linked external environmental data available with ABCD Data Release 4.0. (Fan et al. 2021)
The ABCD COVID-19 data release consists of survey responses from ABCD families about the impact of the pandemic on their lives. Surveys were sent electronically to all ABCD participants and their parent/guardian in May, June, August, October, and December of 2020, and March of 2021. This second ABCD COVID data release consists of survey data from October and December of 2020 and March of 2021. Youth and parents/guardians were asked separately about school attendance and activities, sleep, daily routines, physical activity, mental health, screen time, racism/discrimination in relation to COVID-19, COVID attitudes and practices, and coping behaviors. In addition, when site and school closures began in March 2020, ABCD participants who had their ABCD-assigned activity tracker agreed to extend protocol wear of the device, contributing valuable objective physical activity, resting heart rate, and sleep data. Also included are COVID-19 geocoded metrics that describe the local environment for each participant, including unemployment data, COVID-19 prevalence, and social distancing metrics. Visit the NDA website for more information.
The purpose of the RDS file is for the implementation of the Data Exploration and Analysis Portal (DEAP) for the most current release of ABCD Study data. The RDS file is accessible via the ABCD page on the NIMH Data Archive.
Curated data are released annually through the NIMH Data Archive, beginning with an interim release that was made available in 2018 and included high quality baseline data from the first ~4500 participants. Data Release 2.0 included baseline data on the full participant cohort. Click here to view what the baseline data includes.
The ABCD Study, in partnership with the NIMH Data Archive (NIDA), releases fast-track unprocessed neuroimaging data and basic participant demographics. Click here for more information.
Click here for full baseline data demographics (n = 11,878 participants; 48% female; 52% male)
Please click here to view archived data releases.
Data Opportunities
NIDA has issued two secondary data analysis funding opportunity announcements focused on substance use trajectories and risk and resilience of substance use disorder. You can review the Requests for Application here and here.
NIMH, along with NIAAA, NIEHS and the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, have issued funding opportunity announcements for ABCD secondary data analysis. Note that these are reissues of PAR-19-162 and PAR-19-163. You can review them here and here.
Call for papers for a DCN Special Issue on ABCD studies
Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study: Longitudinal Methods, Developmental Findings, and Associations with Environmental Risk Factors
Guest Editors: Monica Luciana, Deanna Barch, Megan Herting
This special issue of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience is focused on the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. The ABCD Consortium study includes 21 data collection sites that have successfully enrolled and are following nearly 12,000 adolescents and their families using a comprehensive neurobehavioral and MRI-based neuroimaging battery. The data have been made available to the scientific community through the NIMH Data Archive. As of this writing, the project’s baseline and year 1 follow-up data have been released. ABCD Data Release 3.0, which includes a portion of the 2-year follow-up data, will be available later this fall. The goal of this issue is to update the field on the study’s longitudinal measures, best practices for the analysis of longitudinal data, and emerging findings. We are particularly interested in empirical papers that use best practices to establish robustness and replicability, take advantage of the longitudinal nature of the data, and integrate findings across measurement domains. This issue will be focused on papers that present new information on psychometrics or validity of measures, best practices for analytic approaches, and/or novel neurodevelopmental findings in accord with the mission of the journal. In keeping with the mission of the journal, papers should address, either through methodology or discussion, relevance to the field’s understanding of neurodevelopment.
Submission instructions
The Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience’s submission system will be open for submissions to our Special Issue from 01 Feb 2021. When submitting your manuscript please select the article type “VSI: ABCD Longitudinal methods”. Please submit your manuscript before 31 Mar 2021.
All submissions deemed suitable to be sent for peer review will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. Once your manuscript is accepted, it will go into production and will be simultaneously published in the current regular issue and pulled into the online Special Issue. Articles from this Special Issue will appear in different regular issues of the journal, though they will be clearly marked and branded as Special Issue articles.
The data collection from the Developmental Cognition and Neuroimaging (DCAN) Labs contains a regularly updated dataset of ABCD Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) version 1.2.0 pipeline inputs and derivatives. Source data are currently comprised of all the ABCD Study participants baseline DICOM imaging data that passed initial acquisition quality control and were processed by DCAN Labs. The input DICOM data to this BIDS version 1.2.0 data collection were retrieved from the NIMH Data Archive (NDA) share of ABCD fast-track data and were last accessed on May 1, 2019. BIDS input data were converted from DICOMs using ABCD Dcm2Bids. BIDS derivatives data were derived from the DCAN Labs ABCD-BIDS MRI processing pipeline which ou(https:/nda.nih.gtputs Human Connectome Project (HCP) Minimal Preprocessing Pipelines-style data in both volume and surface spaces. The collection is here.
Authorized users now have access to the ABCD Data Exploration and Analysis Portal (DEAP) via the NIMH Data Archive to facilitate analysis of ABCD Study data. The DEAP allows users to analyze ABCD Study data online, while providing appropriate statistical models and tools that take advantage of the study design.
Click here to view the ABCD Study data analysis codes on the GitHub development site!
Fuzzy clusters derived from genetic correlation of cortical areas will be provided on request. Click here to view associated documentation.
Please click here to view archived data opportunities.
ABCD Study Methods Publications
ABCD Study investigators have published papers that describe the study’s design and analysis plans, and that highlight methodological and statistical issues in ABCD.
Click here to read about recommendations for using large-scale publicly available data to advance health among American Indian peoples.
Click here to read about recommended practices for researchers and reviewers working with ABCD Study data.
Click here to read about trait stability and reliability in ABCD task fMRI data.
Click here to read about protocols and practices for the ABCD Study’s linked external environmental data.
Click here to read about issues surrounding meaningful associations in the ABCD Study.
Click here to read about the neuroimaging processing pipeline used for ABCD Data Release 1.1.
Click here for a special issue of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience dedicated to the study’s rationale, aims, and assessment strategies.