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152 lines
6.6 KiB
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---
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title: How I Converted my Brain fMRI to a 3D Model
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date: 2019-08-23
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---
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# How I Converted my Brain fMRI to a 3D Model
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just want to start this out by saying I am not an expert, and
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nothing in this blogpost should be construed as medical advice. I just wanted
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to see what kind of pretty pictures I could get out of an fMRI data file.
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So this week I flew out to Stanford to participate in a study that involved a
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fMRI of my brain while I was doing some things. I asked for (and recieved) a
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data file from the fMRI so I could play with it and possibly 3D print it. This
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blogpost is the record of my journey through various software to get a fully
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usable 3D model out of the fMRI data file.
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## The Data File
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I was given [christine_brain.nii.gz][firstniifile] by the researcher who was
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operating the fMRI. I looked around for some software to convert it to a 3D
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model and [/r/3dprinting][r3dprinting] suggested the use of [FreeSurfer][freesurfer]
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to generate a 3D model. I downloaded and installed the software then started
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to look for something I could do in the meantime, as this was going to take
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something on the order of 8 hours to process.
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### An Animated GIF
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I started looking for the file format on the internet by googling "nii.gz brain image"
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and I stumbled across a program called [gif\_your\_nifti][gyn]. It looked to be
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mostly pure python so I created a virtualenv and installed it in there:
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```
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$ git clone https://github.com/miykael/gif_your_nifti
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$ cd gif_your_nifti
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$ virtualenv -p python3 env
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$ source env/bin/activate
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(env) $ pip3 install -r requirements.txt
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(env) $ python3 setup.py install
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```
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Then I ran it with the following settings to get [this first result][firstgif]:
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```
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(env) $ gif_your_nifti christine_brain.nii.gz --mode pseudocolor --cmap plasma
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```
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<center><video controls> <source src="https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine-fmri-raw.mp4" type="video/mp4">A sideways view of the brain</video></center>
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<small>(sorry the video embed isn't working in safari)</small>
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It looked weird though, that's because the fMRI scanner I used has a different
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rotation to what's considered "normal". The gif\_your\_nifti repo mentioned a
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program called `fslreorient2std` to reorient the fMRI image, so I set out to
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install and run it.
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### FSL
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After some googling, I found [FSL's website][fsl] which included an installer
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script and required registration.
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37 gigabytes of downloads and data later, I had the entire FSL suite installed
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to a server of mine and ran the conversion command:
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```
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$ fslreorient2std christine_brain.nii.gz christine_brain_reoriented.nii.gz
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```
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This produced a slightly smaller [reoriented file][secondniifile].
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I reran gif\_your\_nifti on this reoriented file and got [this result][secondgif]
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which looked a _lot_ better:
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<center><video controls> <source src="https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine-fmri-reoriented.mp4">A properly reoriented brain</video></center>
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<small>(sorry again the video embed isn't working in safari)</small>
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### FreeSurfer
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By this time I had gotten back home and [FreeSurfer][freesurfer] was done installing,
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so I registered for it (god bless the institution of None) and put its license key
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in the place it expected. I copied the reoriented data file to my Mac and then
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set up a `SUBJECTS_DIR` and had it start running the numbers and extracting the
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brain surfaces:
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```
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$ cd ~/tmp
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$ mkdir -p brain/subjects
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$ cd brain
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$ export SUBJECTS_DIR=$(pwd)/subjects
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$ recon-all -i /path/to/christine_brain_reoriented.nii.gz -s christine -all
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```
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This step took 8 hours. Once I was done I had a bunch of data in
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`$SUBJECTS_DIR/christine`. I opened my shell to that folder and went into the
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`surf` subfolder:
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```
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$ mris_convert lh.pial lh.pial.stl
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$ mris_convert rh.pial rh.pial.stl
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```
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Now I had standard stl files that I could stick into [Blender][blender].
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### Blender
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Importing the stl files was really easy. I clicked on File, then Import, then
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Stl. After guiding the browser to the subjects directory and finding the STL
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files, I got a view that looked something like this:
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<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BRAIN <a href="https://t.co/kGSrPj0kgP">pic.twitter.com/kGSrPj0kgP</a></p>— Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1164526098526478336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
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I had absolutely no idea what to do from here in Blender, so I exported the
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whole thing to a stl file and sent it to a coworker for 3D printing (he said
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it was going to be "the coolest thing he's ever printed").
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I also exported an Unreal Engine 4 compatible model and sent it to a friend of
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mine that does hobbyist game development. A few hours later I got this back:
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<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/fXnwnSpMry">pic.twitter.com/fXnwnSpMry</a></p>— Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1164714830630203393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
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(Hint: it is a take on the famous [galaxy brain memes][galaxybrain])
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## Conclusion
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Overall, this was fun! I got to play with many gigabytes of software that ran
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my most powerful machine at full blast for 8 hours, I made a fully printable 3D
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model out of it and I have some future plans for importing this data into
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Minecraft (the NIFTI `.nii.gz` format has a limit of _256 layers_).
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I'll be sure to write more about this in the future!
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## Citations
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Here are my citations in [BibTex format][citations].
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Special thanks goes to Micheal Lifshitz for organizing the study that I
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participated in that got me this fMRI data file. It was one of the coolest
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things I've ever done (if not the coolest) and I'm going to be able to get a
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3D printed model of my brain out of it.
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[firstniifile]: https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine_brain.nii.gz
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[secondniifile]: https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine_brain_reoriented.nii.gz
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[r3dprinting]: https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/2w0zxx/magnetic_resonance_image_nii_to_stl/
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[freesurfer]: https://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/FreeSurferWiki
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[gyn]: https://github.com/miykael/gif_your_nifti
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[firstgif]: /static/blog/christine-fmri-raw.mp4
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[secondgif]: /static/blog/christine-fmri-reoriented.mp4
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[fsl]: https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/
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[blender]: https://www.blender.org
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[galaxybrain]: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/expanding-brain
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[citations]: /static/blog/brainfmri-to-3d-model.bib
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