FSL Tutorial

01-07-2013
Part I: Getting started with FSL
Part II: FSL pre-statistics using FEAT
Part III: FEAT 1st Level Analysis
Part IV: FEAT 2nd Level Analysis
Part V: FEAT 3rd Level Analysis
Part VI: Scripting
Part I: Getting Started with FSL
1. FSL Overview
The FSL website: http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/
We will be using the highlighted tools to perform simple fMRI analysis.

Skull stripping of T1 images

Pre-statistics and general linear model analysis of BOLD data

Data viewer

2. Some useful Unix commands:

All these commands are entered on the command line

cd Change Directory, allows you to move into a new directory from the directory you are currently in. This is
similar to clicking on different folders in the Finder on a Mac, or in Windows Explorer, but you are moving folders
by typing commands into the terminal instead.

For example:

cd `findexp Class.01`
cd ~/experiments/Class.01
cd Class.01/FSLtutorial/1

Note: You need to type everything with EXACTLY the correct paths

cd ../ - changes current directory to the directory higher up in the hierarchy. For example, if you are in
~/experiments/Class.01 typing cd ../ will take you to ~/experiments

pwd Print Working Directory this command will display the directory you are currently in. This is helpful if
you get lost while navigating through your folders.

ls - list the contents of the current directory

3. Preparing BOLD images for analysis

BOLD images at BIAC are in DICOM format and come with a .BXH header. From the Finder, look in the RUN1
folder in your computer folder and make sure you see the .bxh header (called FUNC4_V.bxh). You can open this
header in Wordpad, these headers contain all the information about the scans (image size, TRs, sequence used etc.)
The other images are the DICOM images.

BIAC images need to be reoriented from LPS orientation to LAS orientation. FSL templates are LAS and
registration in FSL will only do rotations, so starting in LAS orientation will prevent registration errors in the future.
We will use the BXH tools to reorient the data. For more information on the BXH tools, see
http://www.biac.duke.edu/home/gadde/xmlheader-docs/

You can also type bxhreorient --help to get information on the tool from the command line. You can do
this with any of the bxh tools.

Type pwd (print working directory) on the command line to make sure you are in the Class.01/FSLtutorial/#
folder where # is your computer number. If not, type on the command line:

cd ~/experiments/Class.01/FSLtutorial/# where # is your computer number

Reorient from LPS to LAS orientation using the command bxhreorient by typing while you are in the
Class.01/FSLtutorial/# folder (where # is your computer number):

bxhreorient --orientation=LAS RUN1/FUNC4_V.bxh RUN1/run01.bxh

This will create both a .bxh header called run01.bxh as well as a .nii.gz file for functional run 1. FSL uses .nii.gz
formatted data. You would need to do this for all 5 runs (for example bxhreorient --orientation LAS
RUN2/FUNC4_V.bxh RUN2/run02.bxh etc) so that you create run01.bxh-run05.bxh and run01.nii.gz
run05.nii.gz, except we have already done this for runs 2-5.

4. Preparing T1 images for analysis

T1 images at BIAC are in DICOM format and come with a .BXH header (here called ANAT1_Whole_brain.bxh)

Reorient from LPS to LAS bxhreorient by typing:

bxhreorient --orientation LAS ANAT1/ANAT1_Whole_brain.bxh ANAT1/reoriented_anat.bxh

You still need to be in the ~/experiments/Class.01/FSLTutorial/# folder. This will create both a .bxh header as
well as a .nii.gz file called reorientated_anat.nii.gz.

You also need to remove the non-brain material from the T1-image using FSLs brain extraction tool (BET).
The above image is from the BET research page: http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/analysis/research/bet/. Here you
can see that the brain is separated from the skull by the blue line.

To access the BET GUI type: fsl &

The GUI will pop up. Select BET brain extraction by clicking the button on the main FSL GUI. The BET GUI
will pop up:

The input image should be your NIFTI (reoriented_anat.nii.gz) formatted T1 image. The output image, by default,
will be the name of the input image with _brain appended (reoriented_anat_brain.nii.gz). An important option to
be aware of is the fractional intensity threshold. Changing Fractional intensity threshold from its default value of
0.5 will cause the overall segmented brain to become larger (<0.5) or smaller (>0.5). This threshold must lie
between 0 and 1. There are other useful options, please see the BET research page user guide for more information.
http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/BET/UserGuide

For our purposes here, the default 0.5 should be fine.

Close the BET GUI.

5. Inspecting raw data in FSLview

Open FSLview by typing fslview & on the

command line, or by clicking the FSLview
button on the main FSL GUI.

Go to File Open in the FSL GUI and select

your BOLD data. Remember FSL uses .nii.gz
images, so you can load run01.nii.gz from the
RUN1 folder. You can look at the BOLD data
volume by volume by looking at in movie mode.
You can check for gross motion or other
artifacts this way.Close the BOLD image by
clicking the x in the corner of the window (but
dont close FSLview!)

After closing the BOLD data, also load the

reoriented_anat.nii.gz image and
reoriented_anat_brain.nii.gz from the ANAT1
folder to make sure the brain extraction looks
ok.

File Open reoriented_anat.nii.gz

Overlay the brain extracted T1 image on top:

File Add reoriented_anat_brain.nii.gz

Change the color of the brain extracted image

to blue:

Select the reoriented_anat_brain.nii.gz image on

the bottom right window. Click the
button. In the Lookup table options pull
down menu, change the color.

You can now see the brain extracted image over

the T1 image so you can see how well your
brain extraction turned out. If you want to
improve it, rerun BET with different options
(for example changing the fractional intensity).

Note: you only need to brain extract the T1

image, the BOLD data is brain extracted
automatically by FEAT when you run the pre-
statistics portion of the analysis.
6. Specifying event timing
FSL uses three column tab-delimited text files describing the
timing of your events. The first column is the onset, the second
the duration of the event, and the third a weighting factor
(usually 1 unless for some reason you want to weight them
differently). You need one file for each condition of each run for
each subject (so if you have 3 conditions, 3 runs, and 20 subjects,
you have 3320 files = 180 text files. Usually you obtain the
three column formatted files directly from the output of your task. There are a bunch of tools that can convert
different output file types into three column formatted files:
http://www.biac.duke.edu/home/gadde/xmlheader-docs/ see eprime2xml, presentation2xml, showplay2xml and
eventstable2xml.

We already have the three column format files set up for this task. Here you have 2 timing files files for each run in
Class.01/FSLtutorial/#/Timing/run01 run05 called ev1.txt and ev2.txt. You should open and look at one of
these files in Wordpad.

You now have all the components you need to start using FEAT, FSLs general linear modeling fMRI analysis tool!
To recap, you need BOLD data in LAS orientation in NIFTI format, T1 data in LAS orientation in NIFTI
format that has been brain extracted using BET, and you need three column formatted text files with your
event timing (one for each condition). You also need to have inspected your raw T1 and BOLD data and checked
that your brain extraction did a good job. You should always look at raw data.

Part II: FEAT pre-statistics

Description of example data:

Each of these datasets consists of a set of volumes of functional data taken from one run of a motor
response task done by one subject. This task is a blocked design. Throughout the experiment, the subject
squeezed both hands whenever a flashing checkerboard stimulus was presented. Each functional run has 131
time points.
IMAGE PARAMETERS FOR ALL RUNS
--------------------------------
Field Strength: 1.5 T
Sequence: Spiral Gradient Echo
Matrix size: 64 x 64
Field of view: 24
Voxel size (x, y, z): 3.75mm, 3.75mm, 5mm
Orientation: Axial
TR: 2000 ms
TE: 40
Disdaqs: 3
EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS
---------------------------
A static checkerboard is displayed for the first two TRs (4s). Alternating blocks begin with the third TR.
The first block displays a flashing checkerboard for 10 TRs (20s). The second block displays a static
checkerboard for 10 TRs (20s). This set of flashing/static blocks is repeated six times. After the final static
block, another 6 TRs (12s) of flashing checkerboard appeared before the run ended. Ev1.txt describes the
timing of the flashing checkboard (both hands squeezed), and ev2.txt describes the timing of the static
checkerboard (rest).
Before running the GLM statistical analysis to look for activation in your data, you need to preprocess the data.
Pre-statistics processing includes motion correction using MCFLIRT, slice-time correction, and temporal and spatial
filtering. There are other options, but they are beyond the scope of this tutorial, and can be looked at here:
http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/FEAT/UserGuide#Pre-Stats

To continue on at this point, you need to have:

- NIFTI formatted BOLD data in LAS orientation (for each runs 1-5)
- NIFTI formatted T1 data in LAS orientation that has been skull stripped using BET
- Tab delimited 3 column format text files for the timing of your data (for each runs 1-5)

To open FEAT, type: fsl & or if you already have the fsl GUI open, select the FEAT tab.

1. Data tab

In the two drop down menus at the top, you should have First-level analysis and Full- Analysis selected

Click the Select 4D data button and select the .NIFTI file you want to analyze. First, you should be using
run01.nii.gz, which is the raw BOLD data from run 1 that has been reoriented to LAS in the RUN1 folder. Once
the data is loaded, the number of time points and TRs should be filled in automatically. If for some reason the TR
is not filled in automatically, change it to 2 s.

This warning may pop up:

Click OK.

Fill in the output directory by entering the foldername as :

/mnt/BIAC/munin2.dhe.duke.edu/BIAC/Class.01/FSLtutorial/#/run01 where # is your computers folder
number. This will make the output directory called run01.feat with your first level analysis for RUN1.

Leave the high pass filter cut off in seconds (for a blocked design this cut off is adequate). This is chosen to remove
the worst of the low frequency trends, and is also long enough to avoid removing the signal of interest. In general
you need to ensure that this is not set lower than your maximum stimulation period (in this case 20 * 2=40 s).
2. Prestats tab

Leave motion correction at MCFLIRT.

Leave B0 unwarping unchecked.

Slice Timing Correction should be

changed to interleaved using the drop
down menu.

BET brain extraction should be checked

(this refers to automatic brain extraction
of the BOLD data).

Spatial smoothing FWHM (mm) should

be left at 5 mm. Spatial smoothing is
carried out on each volume of the data set
separately. This is intended to reduce
noise without reducing valid activation;
this is successful as long as the underlying
activation area is larger than the extent of
the smoothing. Thus if you are looking for very small activation areas then you should maybe reduce smoothing
from the default of 5mm, and if you are looking for larger areas, you can increase it, maybe to 10 or even 15mm. To
turn off spatial smoothing simply set FWHM to 0.

Intensity normalization, temporal filtering, and perfusion subtraction should be unchecked, high pass filter should
be checked.

Uncheck MELODIC.

**For more information regarding these options, see http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/FEAT/UserGuide#Pre-

Stats!

Part III: FEAT first level analysis

1. Stats Tab
This tab is where the general linear model that models the expected hemodynamic response is set up. The BOLD
data is then matched to this model and areas of activity are voxels where the time-course of the BOLD data is
statistically similar to the model you created.

FILM prewhitening should be selected (FILM: FMRIBs Improved

Linear Model). From the FSL website: FILM uses a robust and
accurate nonparametric estimation of time series autocorrelation to
prewhiten each voxel's time series; this gives improved estimation
efficiency compared with methods that do not pre-whiten.

Add motion parameters to model should be selected. This includes

the head motion parameters (as estimated by MCFLIRT motion
correction in the Pre-stats processing) a as confound explanatory
variable in your model. This can sometimes help remove the residual
effects of motion that are still left in the data even after motion
correction
Click the Full model setup button to set up your analysis.

Since in our task we only have two conditions to model (the flashing checkerboard with hands clenched and the
static checkboard with hands at rest), we only have two EVs, or explanatory variables. Therefore, the Number of
original EVs should be 2. However, if you have more than 2 conditions, you add the number of conditions there.

Change the Basic shape to Custom (3 column format). This is where you are specifying the timing of your
events. Once you have changed to this three column format shape, you will load your timing file, ev1.txt from the
TIMING/run01 folder. Again, this ev1.txt file specifies the timing of your events with the first column being the
onset time in seconds of the events, the second being the duration of the events, and the third being the weighting
factor. You will do this for each EV. Each EV has its own tab, so in this case you will need to set up tab 2 in the
same way as tab one, except that you will load ev2.txt.

Change the convolution shape to Double- Gamma with all the standard options using the drop down method
the convolution is the basic shape of the hemodynamic response that you want in your model. There are other
shapes you can use, see here:
http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/FEAT/UserGuide?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryFEAT%5Cb%29#EVs

Uncheck the temporal derivative - Clicking this option shifts the

waveform slightly by adding a fraction of the temporal derivative of
the EVs original waveform. Doing this will make another waveform
show up in the design matrix next to the EVs waveform from which
it was derived.

Leave the apply temporal filtering checked (this means that you are
applying the temporal high pass filtering that you added in the Data
tab also to the model you are creating for that EV).

Give the EV a name, you dont have to do this but if you have a
complicated task it is useful to label the EVs so you know which part
of your task that EV is modeling. Here I called it on but you really
can give it any name that is descriptive to you. I called EV2 off

You need to set up one of these tabs for each EV! Make sure you
have set up both EV tabs completely!

Important note! The best way to set up an analysis in FSL is to

set up all your contrasts of interest at the first level, and then
carry them up as you combine runs and groups.

You then need to set up your Contrasts and F-tests by selecting the Contrast and F-tests tab:

You will be setting up your contrasts and F-tests for the Original EVs. The other option is real EVs which is
beyond the scope of this tutorial but more information can be found here:
http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/FEAT/UserGuide?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryFEAT%5Cb%29#EVs
We have only two EVs and we will only have one contrast. Here we are asking
the question, where is the activity in EV1 greater than the activity in EV2
(where in the brain is activity for hands clenched greater than activity for hands
at rest)?

To contrast EV1 and EV2, you would give EV1 a value of 1 in this contrast,
and EV2 a value of -1. In a more complex design where you require more
contrast vectors, increase the Number of contrasts. A Z statistic image will be
generated for each contrast vector. Again, give it a descriptive name so you
know what is being modeled. I again called it on>off.

F-Tests:
If you want to investigate whether several contrasts are significantly different
from zero, you can use an F Test. The F Test is not very informative,
however, because you will not be able to ascertain what is significantly
different from zero (it is more of an or statement, where does the brain
respond to EV1 or EV2).

Click Done, and a picture of the model you just created will pop up. This is a graphical
representation of the design matrix and parameter contrasts. The bar on the left is a
representation of time, which starts at the top and points downwards. The white marks show
the position of every 10th volume in time. The red bar shows the period of the longest temporal
cycle which was passed by the highpass filtering. The main top part shows the design matrix;
time is represented on the vertical axis and each column is a different (real) explanatory variable
(e.g., stimulus type). Both the red lines and the black-white images represent the same thing - the
variation of the waveform in time. Below this is shown the requested contrasts; each row is a
different contrast vector and each column refers to the weighting of the relevant explanatory
variable. Thus each row will result in a Z statistic image.

You can close this box now.

2. Post Stats Tab

Leave all options here at the default. Look at FSLs explanations of these options:
http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/FEAT/UserGuide?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryFEAT%5Cb%29#EVs

3. Registration Tab
Click the Main structural image box, and select the brain
extracted and reoriented anatomical image
(reorientated_anat_brain.nii.gz). All other options should
remain the same. You only need to use Normal Search rather
than Full Search because you already know the T1 and
BOLD data is in the same orientation as the FSL standard
template because you took care of that using bxhreorient to
LAS. DOF is degrees of freedom. You can leave this as the
default for now.

**Important note about FSL registration: at the first

level, the registration matrices are created (in other words the
calculations that are necessary for the transformations to
occur are generated) but they are not actually applied until the
2nd level. That is because data in higher resolutions takes up
more space, so this is a space-saving measure. First the
transformation from BOLD to T1 and from T1 to standard
is computed; ultimately the T1 to standard transformation is applied to the BOLD to T1 data to take the BOLD to
standard space. However, in the first level all statistic images are still in the BOLD space because the
transformations have not actually been applied yet.

** Another important note: the T1 and BOLD data must be reoriented to the same orientation (LAS in this
case) as the FSL template to get a good registration; luckily we take care of that in the first step
(bxhreorient)

Click the Go button to run your first level analysis. As the analysis is running, an FSL webpage
will pop up and print out what is happening in your analysis as it goes. Wait a moment for the
analysis to run.

5. Check out your output:

In the Finder, open the Class.01/FSLtutorial/#/run01.feat folder. This is the output of your first level fsl analysis.

The final z-statistic image with all activity that has survived thresholding and correction for multiple comparisons is
called thresh_zstat1.nii.gz, in the main folder run01.feat (not in a subfolder). All of the unthresholded statistic
images are in the run01.feat/stats folder. The transformations necessary for registration between the images are in
the run01.feat/reg folder.

Open the thresholded z-statistic image for EV1 in fslview:

**note, you only have one thresh_zstat image because you only have one contrast, but you would have one for each
contrast in a more complicated task.

type fslview & on the command line, or click the FSLview button on the main fsl GUI.

File Open run01.feat/thresh_zstat1.nii.gz

What will be displayed is a panel with the data on the left and the timeseries and model on the right (FEAT mode).
You will notice that both the z-statistic image and filtered_func_data are loaded (it should be loaded automatically).
The filtered_func_data.nii.gz image is the BOLD data after it has been preprocessed, and therefore has 131
volumes. As you click on voxels with high significance, you will see that the data (red) better matches the model
(blue). Again, this data is still in native BOLD space, it has not been transformed to standard space, so you cannot
overlay it over a standard or T1 image.

Again, the red line here is the filtered functional data (filtered_func_data.nii.gz) which is the data that is actually
compared to the model; it has been processed already.
Another important output to note are the report output files (.html). There is one for each stage of the first level
analysis inside the main run01.feat folder.

First open report_prestats.html by double clicking. This is a summary of the motion correction. You would use
this to exclude subjects or identify time points with a lot of motion.

If you select report_poststats, you will see a summary of activity for that run under Thresholded activation images.
As I said before, the statistics at this level are still in native space. If you click on the statistic images, you will get a
list of clusters and information about each cluster such as location of center of mass and maximum z-score.

There are also time series plots for the voxel with maximum activity (as assessed by the highest z-score). The red
line is the data; the blue line is the full model. The best match between the red and blue lines will give the highest z-
score. The partial model fit is the model fit due simply to the contrast of interest and is not usually easily
interpretable unless you have simple non-differential contrasts.

Report_reg.html is the registration report. There are example images of each of the transformations (BOLDT1,
T1Standard, BOLD Standard). All of the calculations for these transformations have been done, however the
transformations have not been applied at this level and all data is in native space.

You have completed a level one analysis for run 1. We already ran the analysis for runs 2-5, so you dont have to
do it again. But it would be done exactly the same way.

Part IV: FEAT second level analysis

A second level analysis combines all the runs for a single subject.

Open the FEAT GUI by typing fsl & on the command line, and then click the FEAT button.

1. Data Tab:

Change the top dropdown menu to Higher level analysis.

In this case, we are going to leave the Inputs are lower-level FEAT directories as-is. You can also load lower level
cope images instead of entire directories.
Create an output directory in /mnt/BIAC/munin2.dhe.duke.edu/BIAC/Class.01/FSLtutorial/# (where # is
your computer number). Call it something like 2ndLevel so that you know its the second level analysis for this
subject. The output will be in a folder called 2ndLevel.gfeat.

The number of inputs is going to be 5, since you have 5 runs.

Click Select FEAT directories and select run01.feat run05.feat for that subject (your computer number)..

There will be only 1 cope box checked next to Use lower-level copes because we only have one contrast (cope
means contrast of parameter estimates) but if you had more contrasts, you will have more copes.

2. Stats Tab

Here we are going a group average of the 5 runs. We are going to use Fixed effects (as opposed to Mixed Effects, in
Fixed Effects reported activation is with respect to the group of sessions or subjects present, and not representative
of the wider population. Fixed effects ignores cross-session/subject variance)

Click the Full model setup button. You will have only one contrast, the group mean of all the runs on>off
contrast. We are asking the question where on average across all 5 runs is there activity for the contrast on> off?
3. Poststats Tab

Same as in first level, leave as default

Run this analysis by clicking Go.

4. Output

Open 2ndLevel.gfeat folder. There will be a cope.feat folder within this folder for each contrast. Here we only have
on contrast, so there is only one cope.feat folder (cope1.feat) The thresh_zstat1.nii.gz in the cope1.feat folder
contains the voxels that are significantly active over all 5 runs for cope 1.

Look at the report.html outputs for each cope (in the 2ndLevel.gfeat/cope1.feat folder). The report_poststats.html
contains the summary images for activity that is significant over all 5 runs for that cope. There is no
report_prestats.html or report_reg.html because that was done in the first level.

Load thresh_zstat1.nii.gz in fslview.

File Open 2ndLevel.gfeat/cope1.feat/thresh_zstat1.nii.gz

Now the data is in standard space, so you can add the standard image to overlay it onto.
File Add standard MNI152_T1_2mm_brain.nii.gz

In the left window in the list of images, move the thresh_zstat1 image to the top, and change the color to Red-
Yellow by pressing the i button and changing it in the look up table options drop down menu.

The voxels that are colored now are the voxels that are significantly active on average over 5 runs. In this case, the
model isnt the timeseries of the data; the model represents representing the mean across the runs. The panel on
the right shows in red the data, or the activity for each of the runs (in this case the x-axis is not Time, it is Runs)

To move the thresh_zstat image

on top of the standard image

Change color
This is actually runs, not time

**Note: In this case, the filtered_func_data.nii.gz has 5 volumes, it is the concatenated statistics for each of the runs

Part V: Feat third level analysis (group analysis)

Here we are going a group average of multiple subjects. We are
carrying up the analysis of where brain activity while squeezing hands is
greater than when not hands at rest first to the 2nd level (across runs)
and now to the group level.

1. Data Tab
First be sure that the drop down menus on the top are set to Higher-
level analysis and Stats+Postats. Here the inputs will be lower level
FEAT directories, in this case the cope1.feat directories inside
the 2nd level directories of each of your subjects. Remember there
is a cope#.feat directory for each contrast that you have at the second
level. This means that you will have a 3rd level analysis for each
contrast. In this case, we only have one contrast at the second level
(cope1.feat is on>off) so you will only have 1 third level analysis.
For this portion of the tutorial, you will not actually be able to do the analysis, since we only have data from one
subject. In the case of a real third level analysis, the Number of Inputs should be set to the number of subjects. We
will pretend that we have 10 subjects.

Click Select FEAT directories and load in the second level analysis from each subject.

Also enter an Output directory (for example /mnt/BIAC/munin2.dhe.duke.edu/BIAC/Class.01/FSLtutorial

/#/3rdLevel). Output will then be in FSLtutorial/3rdLevel.gfeat.

2. Stats Tab

We are going to use Mixed effects (as opposed to Fixed Effects, Mixed
effects statistics can be used to make inferences about the wider
population). Be sure that the drop down menu at the top of this tab is set
to Mixed effects: FLAME 1. FLAME stands for FMRIB's Local Analysis
of Mixed Effects. Here is more information on the statistics used by FSL:
http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/FEAT/UserGuide#Group_Statistics

Click the Full model set-up button. Here we will specify the contrasts
between groups of subjects that we would like to make. For this analysis,
we will pretend that we have two groups of subjects, group1 and group2
and the first 5 subjects belong to group1 and the second 5 belong to
group2. Therefore, we will have two EVs, one for each group. If we want
to see which group activates more during the task, we would set up the
EVs as such:

This is a very important note about group assignment (the column

labeled Group with a number for each input):

If you ask for more than one group, each group will end up with a separate
estimate of variance for the higher-level parameter estimates; for example,
if the first 5 inputs are second-level FEAT outputs from group1 and the
next 5 inputs are second-level FEAT outputs from group2 you can setup
two different groups and each will end up with its own variance estimates, possibly improving the final modeling
and estimation quality (). If you setup different groups for different variances, you will get fewer data-points to
estimate each variance (than if only one variance was estimated). Therefore, you only want to use this option if
you do believe that the groups possibly do have different variances. Unless your groups have widely different
characteristics and therefore should have different variances, you should keep everyone in the same group with one
variance estimate.

You then need to set up the contrasts. We will have four contrasts, the mean activation of group1, the mean
activation of group2, as well as activation that is greater in group1 than group2, and activation that is greater in
group2 than in group1:
This set up will answer the question:

Where in the brain is activity to hands squeezed greater than hands not squeezed 1.) on average across all subjects in
group1; 2.) on average across all subjects in group2; 3.) in group1 more than group2; 4.) in group2 more than
group1.

3. Post-stats Tab

Leave these options on default.

Part VI: Scripting

Running a FEAT first level Analysis Using a Script and Template:

Bash scripts can be used to automate an FSL analysis for multiple runs/subjects. This is useful if you are planning
on running the same analysis over and over again for each run or subject. The basic idea is that you take the
analysis template, the .fsf file, created when the FSL analysis is set up and replace all the hardcoded path names in
the template with variables that are then manipulated using a script. The script then reads the template and replaces
the variables with new paths, and then runs the FSL analysis. This is much faster and less prone to human error
than trying to analyze all your runs and subjects through the GUI.
You can open the .fsf file in Wordpad. For example, here I opened from run01.feat (first level analysis for run 1)
the file design.fsf file, it looks like this:
__________________________________________________________________________________________
# FEAT version number
set fmri(version) 5.98

# Are we in MELODIC?
set fmri(inmelodic) 0

# Analysis level
# 1 : First-level analysis
# 2 : Higher-level analysis
set fmri(level) 1

# Which stages to run

# 0 : No first-level analysis (registration and/or group stats only)
# 7 : Full first-level analysis
# 1 : Pre-Stats
# 3 : Pre-Stats + Stats
# 2 : Stats
# 6 : Stats + Post-stats
# 4 : Post-stats
set fmri(analysis) 7

# Use relative filenames

set fmri(relative_yn) 0

# Balloon help
set fmri(help_yn) 1

# Run Featwatcher
set fmri(featwatcher_yn) 1

# Cleanup first-level standard-space images

set fmri(sscleanup_yn) 0

# Output directory
set fmri(outputdir)
"/mnt/BIAC/.users/zae2/munin2.dhe.duke.edu/BIAC/Class.01/FSLtutorial/1/run01"

# TR(s)
set fmri(tr) 2.0

# Total volumes
set fmri(npts) 131

etc
______________________________________________________________________________________
The highlighted part is the path to the output directory, which when you set up the first level analysis using the
GUI, you entered in. The .fsf file contains all the same information as the GUI.

Again, the basic idea of setting up a script to run the FSL analysis is that you replace these hardcoded paths to
files and folders with variables that are manipulated by a bash script.

The first step is to replace all the hardcoded paths with variables.

For instance, I will replace this hardcoded output path with a variable: OUTPUTDIR. It is useful to use all capital
letters so that it sticks out and is easy to find the in template.

# Output directory
set fmri(outputdir)
"OUTPUTDIR"

You will do this for all hardcoded paths in the template that you saved. There are a bunch of instances where you
need to put variables in the place of paths for a 1st level analysis:

1. replace the output directory with a variable: ei OUTPUTDIR as shown above

2. the 4-dimensional BOLD data that is being analyzed:

# 4D AVW data or FEAT directory (1)

set feat_files(1)
"/mnt/BIAC/.users/zae2/munin2.dhe.duke.edu/BIAC/Class.01/FSLtutorial/1/RUN1/run01"

replaced with:

# 4D AVW data or FEAT directory (1)

set feat_files(1)
"DATA"

3. The path to the structural image:

# Subject's structural image for analysis 1

set highres_files(1)
"/mnt/BIAC/.users/zae2/munin2.dhe.duke.edu/BIAC/Class.01/FSLtutorial/1/ANAT1/test_brain"

replaced with:
# Subject's structural image for analysis 1
set highres_files(1)
"ANAT"

4. The paths to each of the three column format files (there are two)

# Custom EV file (EV 1)

set fmri(custom1)
"/mnt/BIAC/.users/zae2/munin2.dhe.duke.edu/BIAC/Class.01/FSLtutorial/1/TIMING/run01/ev1.t
xt"

replaced with:
# Custom EV file (EV 1)
set fmri(custom1) "EV1"

Once all the paths are replaced with variables, save the template in the Scripts folder in your computers folder (save
it as something like first_level_template.fsf). There is an example first level template in there already (called
first_level_template_example.fsf).
Writing a bash script:

Important notes about scripts:

# - if this symbol appears at the beginning of a line in a bash script, this line is commented out and will not
execute

${VARIABLE} or $VARIABLE replaces whatever the value of the variable has in that position

For example:
STUDYDIR=~/experiments/Class.01/FSLTutorial
DATA=${STUDYDIR}/1 # here ${STUDYDIR} is replaced by ~/experiments/Class.01/FSLTutorial

You can edit the script in any text editor on the cluster, but I suggest using gedit.

Type gedit & to open a gedit window or gedit scriptname.sh & to open a script that already exists.

The next step is to create the script that will replace the variables with real paths in the template and run the
analysis. An anotated example of a script is shown below. This script is also in your computers folder under
Scripts.

You can open it in gedit also by typing gedit levelone.sh & in the Scripts folder.

#!/bin/sh (indicates that this is a bash script)

# This is a BIAC template script for jobs on the cluster

# You have to provide the Experiment on command line
# when you submit the job the cluster.
#
# > qsub -v EXPERIMENT=Dummy.01 script.sh args
#
# There are 2 USER sections
# 1. USER DIRECTIVE: If you want mail notifications when
# your job is completed or fails you need to set the
# correct email address.
#
# 2. USER SCRIPT: Add the user script in this section.
# Within this section you can access your experiment
# folder using $EXPERIMENT. All paths are relative to this variable
# eg: $EXPERIMENT/Data $EXPERIMENT/Analysis
# By default all terminal output is routed to the "Analysis "
# folder under the Experiment directory i.e. $EXPERIMENT/Analysis
# To change this path, set the OUTDIR variable in this section
# to another location under your experiment folder
# eg: OUTDIR=$EXPERIMENT/Analysis/GridOut
# By default on successful completion the job will return 0
# If you need to set another return code, set the RETURNCODE
# variable in this section. To avoid conflict with system return
# codes, set a RETURNCODE higher than 100.
# eg: RETURNCODE=110
# Arguments to the USER SCRIPT are accessible in the usual fashion
# eg: $1 $2 $3
# The remaining sections are setup related and don't require
# modifications for most scripts. They are critical for access
# to your data
# --- BEGIN GLOBAL DIRECTIVE --
#$ -S /bin/sh
#$ -o $HOME/$JOB_NAME.$JOB_ID.out
#$ -e $HOME/$JOB_NAME.$JOB_ID.out
#$ -m ea
# -- END GLOBAL DIRECTIVE --

# -- BEGIN PRE-USER --
#Name of experiment whose data you want to access
EXPERIMENT=${EXPERIMENT:?"Experiment not provided"} (Checks that the experiment has been
specified when the script was
called)
EXPERIMENT=`biacmount $EXPERIMENT`
EXPERIMENT=${EXPERIMENT:?"Returned NULL Experiment"}

if [ $EXPERIMENT = "ERROR" ]
then
exit 32
else
#Timestamp
echo "----JOB [$JOB_NAME.$JOB_ID] START [`date`] on HOST [$HOSTNAME]----"
# -- END PRE-USER --
# **********************************************************

# -- BEGIN USER DIRECTIVE --

# Send notifications to the following address
#$ -M [email protected] (enter your email address and you will get an email when the
analysis job is complete)

# -- END USER DIRECTIVE --

# -- BEGIN USER SCRIPT --

# User script goes here

#Need to input EXPERIMENT, SUBJ and RUN NAME

#Example qsub -v EXPERIMENT=Class.01 levelone.sh 1 1

SUBJ=$1 this indicates that the subject number is the 1st input after the script name
when the script is called
RUN=$2 this indicates that the run number is the 2nd input after the script name when the
script is called

#Set the directories

FUNCDIR=$EXPERIMENT/FSLtutorial/$SUBJ base directory for functional data
BEHAVDIR=$EXPERIMENT/FSLtutorial/$SUBJ/TIMING/run0$RUN base directory for task timing
data
ANAT=$EXPERIMENT/FSLtutorial/$SUBJ/ANAT1/reoriented_anat_brain.nii.gz path to T1 brain
extracted image
TEMPLATEDIR=$EXPERIMENT/FSLtutorial/$SUBJ/Scripts path to fsl first level analysis
template
OUTPUT=$EXPERIMENT/FSLtutorial/$SUBJ output base path name

#Set some variables

OUTPUTDIR=$OUTDIR/run0$RUN name of output directory (builds on output base path name)
DATA=$FUNCDIR/RUN${RUN}/run0${RUN}.nii.gz 4D data file

EV1=$BEHAVDIR/ev1.txt timing file for condition 1

EV2=$BEHAVDIR/ev2.txt timing file for condition 2

cd $TEMPLATEDIR change into the template directory

#Makes the fsf file using the template this section uses the sed command to replace the
variables in the template with the paths defined above:

for i in 'first_level_template.fsf'; do
sed -e 's@OUTPUTDIR@'$OUTPUTDIR'@g' \
-e 's@ANAT@'$ANAT'@g' \
-e 's@EV1@'$EV1'@g' \
-e 's@EV2@'$EV2'@g' \
-e 's@FSLDIR@'$FSLDIR'@g' \
-e 's@DATA@'$DATA'@g' <$i> ${OUTDIR}/FEAT_${RUN}.fsf
done

#Run feat analysis

feat ${OUTDIR}/FEAT_${RUN}.fsf this runs the analysis!

# -- END USER SCRIPT -- #

# **********************************************************
# -- BEGIN POST-USER --
echo "----JOB [$JOB_NAME.$JOB_ID] STOP [`date`]----"
OUTDIR=${OUTDIR:-$EXPERIMENT/Analysis}
mv $HOME/$JOB_NAME.$JOB_ID.out $OUTDIR/$JOB_NAME.$JOB_ID.out
RETURNCODE=${RETURNCODE:-0}
exit $RETURNCODE
fi
# -- END POST USER--

To run this script, type:

qsub -v EXPERIMENT=Class.01 levelone.sh 1 1

on the command line. Replace the first 1 in this case with your computers number. Here the first 1 is the
computer number and the second 1 is the run number.

The job will then be submitted to a node on the cluster.

If you then type qstat you will see that job running on the cluster.

A folder called run01+.feat will appear. FSL does not overwrite folders, it just appends a + when a folder with the
same name is created.

An output file (for example levelone.sh.####.out) will appear in your subject folder. This will tell you if
something went wrong with the analysis. You can open this file in Wordpad.

You can also submit the jobs in a loop like this from the command line:

for RUN in 1 2 3 4 5;
do

qsub -v EXPERIMENT=Class.01 levelone.sh 1 $RUN

done

This same type of script can be set up for a second or third level analysis in basically the same way.
Key take home from the script tutorial: variables in the template file are replaced by full paths by the
scripts.

Most errors are errors in defining the paths, all input and output paths must be carefully defined in the
script.

Thank you!