Hello! I just ran across this thread:

[afni.nimh.nih.gov]

I found it while looking up "empty regressor" on the board, since I didn't know where else to look. My situation is that some subjects have two extra regressors that the rest don't. So for those that don't, I've just created a 1D stim_times file with a single '*' (even though all the conditions really have 4 scans).

I also added the 'allzero_OK' option to 3dDeconvolve. Now I'm getting lots of warnings:

*+ WARNING: -stim_times 19 has all times equal to '*' ?!?!
++ ** GUESSED ** -stim_times 19 using GLOBAL times
*+ WARNING: '-stim_times 19' (GLOBAL) has 1 '*' fillers; do you want LOCAL times?
*+ WARNING: !! '-stim_times 19' file 'Cond.10Frame.1D' has no good time values
...
++ ==========================================================
*+ WARNING: -------------------------------------------------
*+ WARNING: Problems with the X matrix columns, listed below:
*+ WARNING: * Column 34 [Cond.10Frame#0] is all zeros
*+ WARNING: * Column 35 [Cond.10Background#0] is all zeros
*+ WARNING: -------------------------------------------------
++ ----- Signal+Baseline matrix condition [X] (812x36): 24.0641 ++ GOOD ++
*+ WARNING: !! in Signal+Baseline matrix:
* Largest singular value=3.49514
* 2 singular values are less than cutoff=3.49514e-07
* Implies strong collinearity in the matrix columns!
...
*+ WARNING: !! in Signal-only matrix:
* Largest singular value=1.36685
* 2 singular values are less than cutoff=1.36685e-07
* Implies strong collinearity in the matrix columns
...
*+ WARNING: +++++ !! Matrix inverse average error = 0.00154321 ** BEWARE **
++ Matrix setup time = 7.93 s
** ERROR: !! 3dDeconvolve: Can't run past 5 matrix warnings without '-GOFORIT 5'
** ERROR: !! Currently at -GOFORIT 0
** ERROR: !! See file 3dDeconvolve.err for all WARNING and ERROR messages !!
** ERROR: !! Be sure you understand what you are doing before using -GOFORIT !!
** ERROR: !! If in doubt, consult with someone or with the AFNI message board !!
** FATAL ERROR: !! 3dDeconvolve (regretfully) shuts itself down !!!


Since I'm in doubt, I figured I'd check here! Where is the asterisk "trick" explained in more detail?

Thanks!
Aditya