10.3. @SSwarper base volumes

A brief description of the special multi-volume datasets used as a reference for the program @SSwarper, which both skull-strips and generates a nonlinear warp to a reference template space.

10.3.1. @SSwarper

For full details on this program, as well as how to integrate it straightforwardly with afni_proc.py, please see @SSwarper’s helpfile.

In short, this program iterates internally between skull-stripping and registration to a reference template brain to accomplish the dual goals of skull-stripping the input and estimating a nonlinear warp to a standard template space; these problems are not independent, and this program leverages that fact to provide reasonable results for both quite often.

While the final level of refinement (i.e., the patch size checked for alignment) can be selected by the user, in general @SSwarper can be pretty slow overall, of the order of a couple hours. However, the biggest time-hog within it (3dQwarp) has been written using OpenMP, so it can run on several CPUs simultaneously, saving time. If you have the computer space, using something like 8-12 CPUs should provide good speed up, greatly reducing the overall run time.

The primary final outputs are:

  1. A skull-stripped version of the input anatomical, in its original space

  2. A set of transformations that can be concatenated to transform from the original anatomical dataset’s space (“source”) to the grid of the reference template (“base”)

  3. Fancy-schmancy JPG image files showing the alignment of the features of the data sets, namely an edge-ified version of one over the other (this facilitates the quality check of the alignment and skull-stripping– don’t forget to look at your analyzed data!!).

10.3.2. Reference templates for @SSwarper

In order to use @SSwarper, the user needs to provide a specially-created, multi-volume dataset as a reference. It has five volumes to it, and (reading from the program’s help), these are:

[0] = skull-stripped template brain volume
[1] = skull-on template brain volume
[2] = weight mask for nonlinear registration, with the
      brain given greater weight than the skull
[3] = binary mask for the brain
[4] = binary mask for gray matter plus some CSF (slightly dilated)
      -- this volume is not used in this script
      -- it is intended for use in restricting FMRI analyses
         to the 'interesting' parts of the brain
      -- this mask should be resampled to your EPI spatial
         resolution (see program 3dfractionize), and then
         combined with a mask from your experiment reflecting
         your EPI brain coverage (see program 3dmask_tool).

We now distribute such volumes for a growing number of spaces. They can typically be identified by having “_SSW” attached after their prefix, such as:

The above sub-volumes need to be present in the -base .. dataset for @SSwarper, in the correct order. You are welcome to make your own. Commented scripts are provided below for demonstrating how some of the above examples were made, to give you some help along the way.

MNI152_2009_template_SSW.nii.gz (5 volumes; one volume per column; axi, cor, sag views)

../_images/ALL_MNI152_2009_template_SSW.jpg

TT_N27_SSW.nii.gz (5 volumes; one volume per column; axi, cor, sag views)

../_images/ALL_TT_N27_SSW.jpg

HaskinsPeds_NL_template1.0_SSW.nii.gz (5 volumes; one volume per column; axi, cor, sag views)

../_images/ALL_HaskinsPeds_NL_template1.0_SSW.jpg

10.3.3. Example for making a reference dset: TT_N27_SSW.nii.gz

Here are some example scripts for making each of the five volumes of the TT_N27_SSW.nii.gz dset (do_TT_0[0-4]_*tcsh) and then for concatenating them all (do_TT_05_*tcsh). Each script is commented.

Note that the making of the “skull-on” [1] volume is a bit of a special case here for TT_N27_SSW.nii.gz: the version of this brain with a skull on was not in the same space as the skull-stripped [0] volume, and therefore it had to be brought into it using parameters stored in the header file using “adwarp”. For most scenarios, this step would not need to be done as such (it would usually just be copied, for example).

Scripts for making: TT_N27_SSW.nii.gz

Description

do_TT_00_brick_SKoff_cp.tcsh

Make the “skullstripped” [0] volume. Basically, just copies a skull-stripped reference volume.

do_TT_01_brick_SKon_adwarp.tcsh

Make the “skull-on” [1] volume. See the text above for why this is such an unusually involved step here.

do_TT_02_brick_SKweight_blurinmask.tcsh

Make the blurry volume that includes a dimmed skull, as the [2] volume. This is done by using the already-made volumes [0] and [1].

do_TT_03_brick_Bmask_wbmask.tcsh

Make the whole brain mask [3] volume.

do_TT_04_brick_GCmask_gminfl.tcsh

Make the (inflated, or “generous”) gray matter tissue mask [4] volume.

do_TT_05_combo_scale.tcsh

Concatenate all the individual bricks into a single, multi-volume masterpiece.

10.3.4. Example for making a reference dset: HaskinsPeds_NL_template1.0_SSW.nii.gz

Here are some example scripts for making each of the five volumes of the HaskinsPeds_NL_template1.0_SSW.nii.gz dset (do_HP_0[0-4]_*tcsh) and then for concatenating them all (do_HP_05_*tcsh). Each script is commented.

Here as well, the making of the “skull-on” [1] volume is a bit of a special case here: there was no prior volume with a skull for this data set. Therefore, we “borrowed” the skull from that of another reference template; we performed linear-affine alignment to the skull-bearing “mni_icbm152_t1_tal_nlin_sym_09a.nii” volume (freely available for download under the “ICBM 2009a Nonlinear Symmetric 1×1x1mm template” section from here), and applied

Also, the final volume’s inflated gray matter (GM) map in volume [4] was made starting from the HP template’s associated atlas (“HaskinsPeds_NL_atlas1.0+tlrc”).

Scripts for making: TT_N27_SSW.nii.gz

Description

do_HP_00_brick_SKoff_cp.tcsh

Make the “skullstripped” [0] volume. Basically, just copies a skull-stripped reference volume.

do_HP_01_brick_SKon_borrowskull.tcsh

Make the “skull-on” [1] volume. See the text above for why this is such an unusually involved step here.

do_HP_02_brick_SKweight_blurinmask.tcsh

Make the blurry volume that includes a dimmed skull, as the [2] volume. This is done by using the already-made volumes [0] and [1].

do_HP_03_brick_Bmask_wbmask.tcsh

Make the whole brain mask [3] volume.

do_HP_04_brick_GCmask_gminfl.tcsh

Make the (inflated, or “generous”) gray matter tissue mask [4] volume; uses the associated atlas to define a GM map, which gets inflated.

do_HP_05_combo_scale.tcsh

Concatenate all the individual bricks into a single, multi-volume masterpiece.