@radial_correlate


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@radial_correlate       - check datasets for correlation artifact

    usage : @radial_correlate [options] datasets ...

This program computes the correlation at each voxel with the average
time series in a 20 mm radius (by default).  If there is basically
one high-correlation cluster, it is suggestive of a coil artifact.

Note that significant motion can also cause such an effect.  But
while motion correlations will tend to follow the edge of the brain,
coil artifacts will tend to appear in large, dense clusters.

If people really care, I may add an option to see how large a sphere
might fit within the biggest cluster.  A big sphere would be more
suggestive of a coil artifact, rather than motion.  But adding such
an option sounds suspiciously like work.

  inputs: a list of EPI datasets (after any options)
  output: a directory containing correlation volumes (and more)

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Common examples (note that datasets are always passed last):

  1a. Run default operation on a list of EPI datasets (so just create
      the correlation volumes).

          @radial_correlate pb00.FT.*.HEAD

  1b. Similar to 1a, but specify a results directory for correlations.

          @radial_correlate -rdir new.results pb00.FT.*.HEAD

  2.  Do a cluster test on existing correlation volumes.  Note that
      this still uses the results directory variable, rdir.

          @radial_correlate -do_corr no -do_clust yes pb00.FT.*.HEAD

  3.  Run a complete test, both creating the correlation volumes, and
      then looking for large clusters of high correlations.
      Specify a mask.

          @radial_correlate -do_clust yes -mask full_mask.FT+orig pb00.FT.*.HEAD

  4.  Run a complete test, but alter some clustering options.
        - threshold at 0.7 (instead of the default 0.9)
        - increase the minimum cluster size (frac of mask) to 0.05
        - decrease the correlation sphere radius (from 20 mm) to 10 mm

          @radial_correlate -do_clust yes                   \
              -cthresh 0.7 -frac_limit 0.05 -sphere_rad 10  \
              pb00.FT.*.HEAD

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Overview of processing steps:

0. The first 3 TRs are removed from the input (see -nfirst),
   and an automask is created (limiting all future computations).
   Any -mask overrides the automask operation.
   If -do_corr is 'no', this is skipped.

   (see -do_corr)

1. The correlation dataset is created (unless -do_corr is 'no').

   (see -sphere_rad, -do_corr, -do_clust)

   At each voxel, compute the correlation either within a sphere
   or with the average masked time series.

   a. within a sphere (if -sphere_rad is not 0)

      At each voxel, compute the average time series within a
      sphere of radius 20 mm (see -sphere_rad), and correlate the
      time series with this averaged result.

   b. with the average masked time series (if -sphere_rad is 0)

      The demeaned data is scaled to have unit length (sumsq=1).
      Then compute the mean time series over the automask ROI
      (so across the expected brain).
      Correlate each voxel time series with the mean time series.

   If -do_clust is 'no', this is the last step.

2. Threshold the result (if -do_clust is 'yes').

   (see -cthresh, -percentile, -do_clust)

   Threshold the correlations either at a static value (see -cthresh),
   or at a certain percentile (see -percentile).

   a. at r=cthresh (if -cthresh is not 0)

      Simply threshold the correlations at this value, maybe 0.9.

      (see -cthresh)

   b. at r=percentile (if -cthresh is 0)

      Compute the given percentile (maybe 80), and threshold at
      that value, whatever it turns out to be.

      Note that when using an 80-percent threshold, for example,
      then 20-percent of the voxels should survive the cutoff.
      Later, the question will be how they cluster.

      (see -percentile)

3. if the percentile threshold is too small, considered the data okay

   (see -min_thr)

   In the case of -percentile above (meaning -cthresh is 0), if
   the resulting threshold is not large enough, then we do not
   expect the data to have a problem.

4. compare largest cluster to mask volume

   (see -frac_limit)

   Compute the size of the largest correlation cluster above the
   previous threshold (either -cthresh or via -percentile).  Then
   compute the fraction of the mask volume that this cluster
   occupies.

   If the largest cluster is a large fraction of the mask, then
   we expect there might be a problem (because most of the high
   correlation voxels are in one cluster).

   Otherwise, if the high-correlation voxels are scattered about
   the volume, we do not expect any problem.

   For example, if the largest surviving cluster is more than 5%
   of the mask, the data is consider to FAIL (see -frac_limit).

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    usage : @radial_correlate [options] datasets ...

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general options:

   -help             : show this help

   -hist             : show modification history

   -do_clean yes/no  : clean up at end, leaving only correlations
                       default = no

                       In the case of computing correlations, this
                       option can be used to remove everything but those
                       correlation datasets, to save disk space.

   -do_clust yes/no  : clust correlation volumes? (yes or no)
                       default = no

                       If 'no', only create the correlation volumes.
                       Otherwise, run clustering and look for large
                       artifacts from bad coil channels.

   -do_corr yes/no   : create correlation volumes (yes or no)
                       default = yes

                       If 'yes', create the correlation volumes.
                       If 'no', simply assume they already exist.
                       This is for re-testing a previous execution.

   -polort POLORT    : detrend time series with given poly degree
                       default = 2

   -rdir RESULTS_DIR : directory to do computations in
                       default = corr_test.results

   -use_3dmerge yes/no: use 3dmerge rather than 3dLocalstat
                       default = yes

                       For computing a local average, 3dmerge can do
                       basically the same operation as 3dLocalstat, but
                       250 times as fast (divided by OpenMP speedup).

                       One can make -merge_frad smaller to make the
                       results more similar, if desirable.

   -ver              : show version number

   -verb             : make verbose: set echo

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computational options:

   -cthesh THRESH    : threshold on correlation values
                       (if 0, use percentile, else use this)
                       default = 0.9

   -corr_mask yes/no : mask time series before corrlation blurring
                       default = no

                       This defines whether 3dmerge blurring is applied
                       to a masked dataset.

   -mask MASK_DSET   : specify a mask dataset to replace automask

   -frac_limit LIMIT : min mask fraction surviving cluster
                       default = 0.02

   -mask MASK_DSET   : specify a mask dataset to replace automask
                       default = automask
                       This mask is expected to cover the brain.

   -merge_frad FRAD  : specify a radius fraction for 3dmerge blurring
                       default = 0.0

                       If FRAD is 1, the Gaussian blur kernel will
                       be applied with a shape out to the normal HWHM
                       (half width at half max).  That is to say the
                       the farthest neighbors would contribute 0.5 (half
                       max) of that of the central voxel.

                       FRAC is an inverse scalar on the blur size,
                       and a proportional scalar fraction on the size
                       where the blurring ends.  So sphere_rad is always
                       the applied blur size.

                       A smaller fraction will yield a flatter curve.
                       For example, FRAD=0.5 yeilds a 0.84 relative
                       contribution at the radial distance, while.
                       doubling the requested blur.

                    ** This leads to a cubical region of averaging,
                       rather than an intended spherical one.  It is not
                       a big deal, but is worth noting.

                       Use FRAD=0.0 to apply a full Gaussian, rather than
                       the truncated form.

   -nfirst NFIRST    : number of initial TRs to remove
                       default = 3

   -min_thr THR      : min percentile threshold to be considered
                       default = 0.45

   -percentile PERC  : percentile to use as threshold
                       default = 80

   -sphere_rad RAD   : generate correlations within voxel spheres
                       (or Gaussian weighted versions)
                       (if 0, go against average time series)
                       default = 20

R Reynolds, Aug, 2011