Getting Start with Data Processing
AFNI How-To for GE Datasets. (Edited from Lisa T. Eyler original How-To).

1. Converting anatomical into 3D brik:

a. cd to the directory where your image files are located in.

b. to3d -prefix [anatbrikname] i*

2. Converting functional images into 3D brik:

a. Change directory to your first run for example

b. These are time dependent datasets, so we have to feed the to3d command some parameter, here is an example

to3d -prefix XXX -time:zt #slices #timepts TR sliceorder i*

to3d -prefix run1 -time:zt 35 200 3000 alt+z i*

3. Images Registration:

· In the date directory, enter “afni -R” (this recursively searches for any AFNI datasets in or below the current directory)

· Afni widget window, click on Switch Underlay

- Choose the functional file name that you just created (e.g, 0320run1+orig).

- Under axial (plane that images were collected) – click on graph

- A window with voxels of graphs should appear.


· To look for large movements by the patient during the task, you need to scroll through the graph over time (x-axis on graph), and watch for large changes in the head position on the images.

- to do this, use following keys on the keyboard, while your arrow for the mouse is placed within the graph.

- “>” – moves U forward in time (the red dot on the graph line )

- “<” – moves U back in time

- “+” – increases the amplitude

- “-“ – decreases the amplitude of the graph

- if large movement in head, note approx. time it occurred, may need this later.


· Now, time to register image.

- In the AFNI widget window, click on Define Datamode, then Plugins, then 3-D Registration, and whichever base image you choose (we usually pick one in the middle or use a program by martin Paulus to help choose the most typical base image). Click on Dataset and choose your functional dataset.

- Output file name run1_reg (remember use same name as experiment)

- Now, review graph of registered images to see if head motion has improved.

· Or, one can do the same thing on the command line

- 3dvolreg -base 43 -dfile 0320runbs43.mot -prefix 0320_reg3dbs43 0320+orig

- -base 43 means register to the 43rd image

- the –dfile flag outputs the parameters dx, dy, dz, pitch, roll, yaw into a file (named 0230runbs43.mot) so can use these as a quantitative index of the amount of movement

- -prefix tells the output prefix

- run1.* is the input to register


4. Reference function creation

· Options for creating reference functions

  1. Text editor
- (click with Right mouse button on wallpaper, under Programs, you will find this)

"0" for no stimulus

"1" for stimulus on

· All reference functions must be created with a file name that has suffix of “ .1D” or “.1Dx” (for sets of multiple reference functions) for AFNI to recognize it.


5. Correlating functionals to reference functions

·

In graph window, click on FIM, then click on Pick Ideal

· Choose reference function from file that you created for this image analysis

· Click on Set

· Examine shape of reference function in graph window to make sure it looks like you expected

· Click on FIM, Compute FIM+, click on FBUC



6. Looking at your functional data

· Switch Underlay – pick the anatomical brik (e.g., 0230anat+orig)

· Click Define Overlay, and See Overlay

· Switch threshold (Thr) to #3 correlation; switch OLay to #0 Fit Coefficient

· Slide correlation slider all the way to 0 and look at pixels to make sure your functional brick is in a logical position relative to the anatomy

· Move cursor up & down the multi-colored columns – to find a correlation point with minimal artifact.


7. Shifted reference functions

· In AFNI graph window, click on FIM, then click on Pick Ideal, and choose your unshifted reference function

· Then click on FIM, Edit Ideal, Shift Ideal

- Choose the increment (in TR’s ΰ e.g., 0.5 with TR = 3 sec means 1.5 sec increments)

- Choose the number of steps (usually to the right, and [number of steps X increment (in seconds)] should be less than length of one half-cycle)

- Click Set

· Save your set of reference functions using FIM, Edit Ideal, Write Ideal.

- Give the reference function the .1Dx suffix and include info about the increment and number of steps (e.g., run149_lrn-rpt_s6_1.5s.1Dx)

· Do FIM, Compute FIM+, FBUC

· Look at data as above

· Also, look at which shift was picked for each pixel

- For OLay, pick #1 Best Index; for Thr, pick #3 Correlation

- Change the Intensity color bar so that the values increment at (1/# of reference functions). E.g., if you used 7 reference functions (a 0 shift plus 6 shifts), then you would have the colors change at 0.14, 0.28, 0.42, etc.

- Change the colors by clicking on them to make neighboring colors very distinct

- Slide correlation down to 0 and then back up slowly to see which shifts were associated with the highest correlations


8. Renaming functional datasets

· AFNI outputs the results of each FIM+ as a filename like “run1_reg+orig@1”.

· To rename the filename to be more informative:

- Click on Define Datamode, Plugins, Dataset Rename


- Choose input file, and provide new output prefix



9. Saving images to .jpg format

Step 1 - Make the AFNI window of interest look like you want (e.g., turn off crosshairs, etc). note the button 'Sav1.ppm' is the save button.
Step 2 - right click on the save button, select Save.jpg for jpeg format and click on the 'set' button.
Step 3 - left click on the save button and enter in a filename that you want to name the file. note to save the image in your home directory instead of directory where your dataset is located in, type ~[Home]/[image name].jpg where [Home] is your home directory which is usually your user name.
   
10. For more AFNI program -help

go to the AFNI website http://afni.nimh.nih.gov/afni/doc

Last after all the subjects are to be analyzed together – you may Tailarach the images
Last modified August 28, 2009

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