Analysis of Functional NeuroImages (AFNI) is an open-source

Open-source software

Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...

 environment for processing and displaying functional MRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI is a type of specialized MRI scan used to measure the hemodynamic response related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans or other animals. It is one of the most recently developed forms of neuroimaging...

 data—a technique for mapping human brain activity.

AFNI is an agglomeration of programs that can be used interactively or flexibly assembled for batch processing

Batch processing

Batch processing is execution of a series of programs on a computer without manual intervention.Batch jobs are set up so they can be run to completion without manual intervention, so all input data is preselected through scripts or command-line parameters...

 using shell script

Shell script

A shell script is a script written for the shell, or command line interpreter, of an operating system. It is often considered a simple domain-specific programming language...

. The term AFNI refers both to the entire suite and to a particular interactive program often used for visualization. AFNI is actively developed by the NIMH Scientific and Statistical Computing Core and its capabilities are continually expanding.

AFNI runs under many Unix-like

Unix-like

A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....

 operating systems that provide X11 and Motif

Motif (widget toolkit)

In computing, Motif refers to both a graphical user interface specification and the widget toolkit for building applications that follow that specification under the X Window System on Unix and other POSIX-compliant systems. It emerged in the 1980s as Unix workstations were on the rise, as a...

 libraries, including SGI IRIX

IRIX

IRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. It was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.The last major version...

, Solaris

Solaris Operating System

Solaris is a Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. It superseded their earlier SunOS in 1993. Oracle Solaris, as it is now known, has been owned by Oracle Corporation since Oracle's acquisition of Sun in January 2010....

, Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

, FreeBSD

FreeBSD

FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...

 and Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

. Precompiled binaries are available for some platforms. AFNI is available for research use under the GNU General Public License

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....

. AFNI now comprises over 300,000 lines of C source code

C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....

, and a skilled C programmer can add interactive and batch functions to AFNI with relative ease.

History and Development

AFNI was originally developed at the Medical College of Wisconsin

Medical College of Wisconsin

Medical College of Wisconsin is a private, freestanding medical school and graduate school located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was formerly affiliated with Marquette University....

 beginning in 1994, largely by Robert W. Cox. Robert Cox brought development to the NIH in 2001 and development continues at the NIMH Scientific and Statistical Computing Core.

See also

• National Institute of Mental Health
  National Institute of Mental Health
  The National Institute of Mental Health is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health...
  
  
• Neuroimaging
  Neuroimaging
  Neuroimaging includes the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the structure, function/pharmacology of the brain...
  
  
• NIfTI
• Statistical parametric mapping
  Statistical parametric mapping
  Statistical parametric mapping or SPM is a statistical technique created by Karl Friston for examining differences in brain activity recorded during functional neuroimaging experiments using neuroimaging technologies such as fMRI or PET...
  
  

External links

• AFNI main page
• NIMH Scientific and Statistical Computing Core