New in aa version 1.2

Option to pick only last structural when there are multiple MPRAGEs

Put this in your user script

aap.options.autoidentifystructural_chooselast=1;

Additional parameters can be passed to realignment/slicetime correction

Description: You can now pass extra parameters to aamod_realign and aamod_slicetiming via the aap.spmanalysis fields:

aap.spmanalysis.reslicewhich

% 0 = do not reslice any image (CBU default)

% 1 = do not reslice first image (if realigned to first)

% 2 = reslice all images (e.g, if want to perform slicetiming after realignment)

aap.spmanalysis.writemean

% 1 = write mean (default), 0 = do not

aap.spmanalysis.refslice

% reference slice for slicetiming correction (CBU default=1)

Also, more of the standard SPM defaults apply to aamod_realign (rather than being hard-coded in aamod_realign).

Authors: Rik Henson, Doris Eckstein

Changed source of EPI file prefix

Previously, a single parameter allowed changing of the EPI file prefixes that were looked for, so that slice timing could be included or not. This was the aap.directory_conventions.forrealign_fileprefix, which as either 'f' for no slice timing or 'af' if slice timing was used. It was appended by realign and all subsequent modules.

This did not allow much flexibility for other stages to be included (e.g., realign & unwarp, which adds 'u') or for slice timing to be shifted to after realignment.

I have now moved the file prefixes to the 'tasklist' parameter list, which is where it really belongs. Instead of one long list, tasks are now added using the new aas_addtask command. For stages that take EPI input, the aas_addtask command can optionally include a third parameter that specifies the prefix of the EPIs for this stage. So, a section of a typical tasklist specification ends looks like this:

aap=aas_addtask(aap,'aamod_realignunwrap','f');

aap=aas_addtask(aap,'aamod_slicetiming','uf');

aap=aas_addtask(aap,'aamod_coreg_noss','auf');

aap=aas_addtask(aap,'aamod_norm_noss','auf');

aap=aas_addtask(aap,'aamod_norm_write','auf');

aap=aas_addtask(aap,'aamod_smooth','wauf');

Hopefully, this provides much more flexibility for stage reordering, or additional stages.

Author: Rhodri Cusack

Changed .mat file for normalisation

Description: Changed name of _sn.mat and _sn_inv.mat files produced by normalisation to ms* instead of s* to reflect their origin in second pass

Author: Doris Eckstein

New recipes

The default processing stream has changed in the new "general" recipes, with slice timing now AFTER realignment. This is thought to be better if slices have been acquired in a sequential rather than interleaved order. The files have also been tidied up. There is a full description of the recipes and of some issues in choosing an appropriate recipe on this new page AutomaticAnalysisRecipes.

Conversion of aribitrary special series

New aa mechanism for converting arbitrary series: - add fifth parameter to aas_addsubject command specifying series to be converted - use recipe

They'll be converted and put in [subjectdir]/specialseries

See example in /imaging/local/spm/aa/aa_ver1_devel/examples/aa_user_notforfmri.m

Author: Rhodri Cusack