Automatic Analysis software was originally developed by Dr Rhodri Cusack for supporting research at the MRC Cognition and Brain Science Unit. It is made available to the academic community in the hope that it may prove useful.

Definitions: aa means the Automatic Analysis software package and any associated documentation whether electronic or printed.

Use of this software is subject to the terms of the license, found in the license.txt file distributed with this software.

aa is a pipeline system for neuroimaging written primarily in Matlab. It supports SPM 12, as well as selected functions from other software packages (e.g., FSL, Freesurfer). The goal is to facilitate automatic, flexible, and replicable neuroimaging analyses through a comprehensive pipeline system.

More information can be found on the aa webpage:

http://www.automaticanalysis.org

• System: Linux or MacOX (Windows is not supported. Sorry!)
• Softwares:
  • MATLAB - It has been tested with version r2013a and later
  • SPM - It has been tested with versions SPM12 and later (SPM12 r7219 is recommended!)
• Recommended software for features:
  • For MEG (maxfilter): Neuromag (Elekta Instrument AB Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden)
  • For visual representation of the pipeline: GraphViz
• Recommended/Partially supported software for analysis:
  • Advanced Normalization Tools
  • VBM8
  • FMRIB Software Library
  • FreeSurfer
  • Automatic Defacing Tools templates (*.gca)
  • Group ICA Of fMRI Toolbox
  • EEGLab
  • BrainWavelet Toolbox
  • Motion FingerPrint

aa is maintained on github. The most recent version can be found at:

https://github.com/rhodricusack/automaticanalysis/

Unzip the downloaded package, and add the main folder to the MATLAB path.

Some parameters (path settings, format settings) stored in /aa_parametersets/aap_parameters_defaults.xml have to be configured to reflect your local environment. We recommend naming your local configuration file aap_parameters_user.xml if you want to run the examples easily (see below).

Instead of copying the main aap_parameters_defaults.xml, we recommend to create a local version by inheriting most of the settings from aap_parameters_defaults.xml. See aap_parameters_defaults_CBSU.xml as an example.

• directory_conventions/rawdatadir: Directories to find raw MRI data

• directory_conventions/subjectoutputformat: sprintf formatting string to get subject directory as stored in directory_conventions/rawdatadir

• directory_conventions/seriesoutputformat: sprintf formatting string to get series directory as stored in subject directory

• directory_conventions/protocol_structural: Name of the structural/anatomical protocol as stored in the DICOM header

• directory_conventions/dicomfilter: Directory listing filter to find DICOM data

• directory_conventions/spmdir: Path to SPM. N.B.: You should not modify SPM version in your user script but rather in your local parameter file. Optional:

• For distortion correction using fieldmap:

  • directory_conventions/protocol_fieldmap: Name of the fieldmap protocol as stored in the DICOM header

• For multichannel segmentation using T2-weighted image:

  • directory_conventions/protocol_t2: Name of the T2-weighted protocol as stored in the DICOM header

• For MEG:

  • directory_conventions/rawmegdatadir: Directories to find raw MEG data
  • directory_conventions/megsubjectoutputformat: sprintf formatting string to get subject directory as stored in directory_conventions/rawmegdatadir
  • directory_conventions/neuromagdir: Path to Neuromag (maxfilter)

• Optional analysis software:

  • FMRIB Software Library:

    • directory_conventions/fsldir: Path to FSL
    • directory_conventions/fslsetup: Path to FSL setup/configuration script to be executed before any FSL command
    • directory_conventions/fslshell: Shell used to run FSL. It should be in accordance with directory_conventions/fslsetup
    • directory_conventions/fsloutputtype: Output type used by FSL ("NIFTI" recommended)

  • FreeSurfer:

    • directory_conventions/freesurferdir: Path to FreeSurfer
    • directory_conventions/freesurfersetup: Path to FreeSurfer setup/configuration script, executing before any FreeSurfer command
    • directory_conventions/freesurfershell: Shell used to run FreeSurfer. It should be in accordance with directory_conventions/freesurfersetup and directory_conventions/freesurferenvironment
    • directory_conventions/freesurferenvironment: Path to FreeSurfer environmental setup script, executing before any FreeSurfer command

  • directory_conventions/eeglabdir: Path to EEGLab

  • directory_conventions/GIFTdir: Path to GIFT

  • directory_conventions/ANTSdir: Path to ANTS

  • directory_conventions/fieldtripdir: Path to FieldTrip

  • directory_conventions/BrainWaveletdir: Path to BrainWavelet

  • directory_conventions/spmtoolsdir: Path to external/custom SPM toolboxes

• Parallel processing:

  • directory_conventions/qsubscheduler: MATLAB function to set up qsub scheduler to execute jobs in the cluster (should be in your MATLAB path)
  • directory_conventions/poolprofile: MATLAB function to create cluster profile for parallel processing in a local job (should be in your MATLAB path)

The user scripts and task lists in the examples folder demonstrate a wide range of analyses. It is easy to get started with AA by adapting the example that most resembles your planned analysis. Before you do that, we recommend that you try to run a few these scripts to confirm that your installation is running (e.g., aa_user_demo.m).

We provide rudimentary automated tests under the aa_test folder. If you are having trouble with AA it's a good idea to start by checking that you can get the automated test to run.

Please feel free to open an issue here on Github if you are having trouble getting AA to work.

There is also a discussion list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/automaticanalysis

The master branch on github will always have the latest stable version. To be notified when a new version is available, please sign up for the automaticanalysis-announce email list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/automaticanalysis-announce

For any papers that report data analyzed with aa, please include the website (http://www.automaticanalysis.org) and cite the aa paper:

Cusack R, Vicente-Grabovetsky A, Mitchell DJ, Wild CJ, Auer T, Linke AC, Peelle JE (2015) Automatic analysis (aa): Efficient neuroimaging workflows and parallel processing using Matlab and XML. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics 8:90. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fninf.2014.00090