The weighting function can be input by the user of 3dvolreg, using the "-weight" option. However, this is rarely done, it seems. The default weight is a smoothed version of the base dataset (which is explained in the help for 3dvolreg, by the way), which for normal EPI data gives approximately equal weight to all intra-brain voxels and gives lower weight to voxels outside the brain. In particular, values of the default weight that are below 2.5% of the max value in the blurred volume will be set to 0. The blurring is a Gaussian blur with FWHM in all directions being 3 voxels (this blurring is done using FFTs).
bob cox