FreeSurfer
| Developer(s) | Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging |
|---|---|
| Stable release |
5.3.0
|
| Operating system | Linux or Mac OS X |
| Type | Neuroimaging data analysis |
| License | FreeSurfer Software License |
| Website | FreeSurfer |
FreeSurfer is a brain imaging software package developed by the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital for analyzing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan data. It is an important tool in functional brain mapping and facilitates the visualization of the functional regions of the highly folded cerebral cortex. It contains tools to conduct both volume based and surface based analysis, which primarily use the white matter surface. FreeSurfer includes tools for the reconstruction of topologically correct and geometrically accurate models of both the gray/white and pial surfaces, for measuring cortical thickness, surface area and folding, and for computing inter-subject registration based on the pattern of cortical folds. In addition, an automated labeling of 35 non-cortical regions is included in the package.
The FreeSurfer processing stream is controlled by a shell script called recon-all. The script calls component programs that organize raw MRI images into formats easily usable for morphometric and functional MRI statistical analysis with the FreeSurfer Functional Analysis Stream (FS-FAST) package. Freesurfer uses a morphed spherical method to average across subjects for statistical (general linear model) analysis with the QDEC tool. Two editing and visualization tools, Tkmedit and Tksurfer, respectively, are included in the package, with an additional visualization tool called Freeview in development. FreeSurfer automatically segments the volume and parcellates the surface into standardized regions of interest (ROIs). The package has a broad spectrum of other uses, including retinotopy, brain morphometry, and other data analysis tools. Freesurfer can also do interhemispheric registration and can also calculate the degree of folding or local GI. Freesurfer also include a Matlab toolbox for linear mixed effects models
...
Wikipedia