Also,
to start answering question 3 (I may have understood a bit or maybe not
)
The idea with the ptaylor strategy is that whatever is the original orientation specified by the scanner (or the header)
if the animal was in sphinx position and if you reorient the dataset in RAI with
# reset the orientation to something simple
3dresample -orient RAI -input DSET_01 -prefix DSET_02
the second step will always be:
# change the header orientation information to rearrange how the dataset appears
3dcopy DSET_02 DSET_03
3drefit -orient LIP DSET_03
or "RIP" if in radiological orientation (LR reversed)
# change the header orientation information to rearrange how the dataset appears
3dcopy DSET_02 DSET_03
3drefit -orient RIP DSET_03
however, I remain confused because ptaylor said:
"Note that here, I have often used "LSP", "LIP" or "RIP", depending on the scanner and original orientation."