FREESURFER
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Peggy Christidis
November 18, 2004
National Institutes of Health

GOAL OF WORKSHOP
Start with several anatomical scans (MPRAGE)
Create surface using FreeSurfer
Overlay functional data on surface using SUMA (Hands-On class for SUMA on 11-19-04)

Agenda

FreeSurfer Flowchart
1.  Volume Preprocessing
Convert I.* files to BRIK using AFNI to3d
Perform intensity normalization using AFNI 3dUniformize
Register multiple volumes using AFNI 3dvolreg
Average the registered volumes using AFNI 3dMean
Convert to FreeSurfer format using FreeSurfer mri_convert

    1.  Volume Preprocessing
Intensity normalization Ð critical for segmentation
1.  Volume Preprocessing
Convert I.* files to BRIK using AFNI to3d
Perform intensity normalization using AFNI 3dUniformize
Register multiple volumes using AFNI 3dvolreg
Average the registered volumes using AFNI 3dMean
Convert to FreeSurfer format using FreeSurfer mri_convert

2.  Segmentation
Intensity normalization
Skull stripping
White matter labeling

2.  Segmentation
Intensity normalization
Skull stripping
White matter labeling

2.  Segmentation
Intensity normalization
Skull stripping
Shrink-wrap algorithm
Start with ellipsoidal template
Minimize brain penetration and curvature
White matter labeling

Slide 11
2.  Segmentation
Intensity normalization
Skull stripping
White Matter labeling
Preliminary classification solely intensity based
Relabeling of mislabeled voxels based on neighborhood information
Define cutting planes
Find connected components and fill

3.  Tessellation and Inflation
Surface Tessellation
Use two triangles to represent each face separating white matter voxels from other voxels
Smooth initial tessellation with a deformable surface algorithm
Surface Inflation
Retain shape and metrics while making the interior of sulci visible

Slide 14
4.  Manual editing
Examine surface for defects
manually reclassify voxels in the following areas:
Lateral ventricle
Fornix
Optic nerve
Basal ganglia
Other defect areas

Slide 16
8.  Cutting and flattening
For a full surface patch
For occipital patch

Slide 18
SUMA (Hands-On class 11-19-04)
Convert surfaces to ASCII format
Align surface volume to experiment volume
Overlay functional data onto surface
Create link between AFNI and SUMA
View function on volume and surface simultaneously
Visit SUMA website for details:
http://afni.nimh.nih.gov/ssc/ziad/SUMA/

Slide 20
Acknowledgements
Alex Clark
Bob Cox
Richard Doucette
Hauke Heekeren
Shruti Japee
Sean Marrett
Rick Reynolds
Ziad Saad