Statistical Parametric Maps for Functional MRI Experiments in R: The Package fmri

The purpose of the package fmri is the analysis of single subject functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. It provides fMRI analysis from time series modeling by a linear model to signal detection and publication quality images. Specifically, it implements structural adaptive smoothing methods with signal detection for adaptive noise reduction which avoids blurring of activation areas. Within this paper we describe the complete pipeline for fMRI analysis using fmri. We describe data reading from various medical imaging formats and the linear modeling used to create the statistical parametric maps. We review the rationale behind the structural adaptive smoothing algorithms and explain their usage from the package fmri. We demonstrate the results of such analysis using two experimental datasets. Finally, we report on the usage of a graphical user interface for some of the package functions.