Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine

SPM Toolboxes

(by Leighton Barnden and Ben Crouch)

SPM toolboxes, written in matlab, are intended to provide supplementary image processing functions in the SPM environment. In SPM's 'toolbox' directory you simply create a new directory with the same name as the new matlab program file, then unzip the downloaded file there. The toolbox name will then appear in the toolbox dropdown menu on the standard SPM GUI. Select it to implement the toolbox function.

Masks.zip (30 Nov 2006)
An SPM toolbox to perform masking or weighting or scaling of 3D images in the SPM environment. Useful for masking of scalp and global scaling. OK for both SPM99 and SPM2. Unzip in new directory .../spm#/toolbox/Masks. Tested OK in SPM99 and SPM2.

VBIS.zip (31 May 2010)
A toolbox to generate a global level for each scan that can be used in SPM statistical analysis to 'adjust out' global effects. The global level is the mean in a region derived using the VBIS technique of Abbott et al, NeuroImage, 2009; 44: 812-819. The VBIS technique is applied after a pilot SPM analysis of the data set, usually using proportional scaling. The statistical parametric images generated are used to compute a coefficient-of-variation (CV = SD/mean) image of the brain and from it the whole brain median CV. The region is then defined by those voxels with values below the median CV. The VBIS toolbox generates vbis_mean.m, a file holding the global levels, in the pilot analysis directory. This must be copied to the directory to be used for the SPM VBIS analysis. More documentation is provided within the program. Tested OK in SPM5 and SPM2 (needs spm_select.m which is zipped with VBIS.m)