What's new
May 2011
Brainstorm reference paper
Publication of a special issue of the journal Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience: "Academic Software Applications for Electromagnetic Brain Mapping Using MEG and EEG". The article describing Brainstorm will now be used as the its reference paper, please cite it in your publications (see How to cite Brainstorm).
Tadel F, Baillet S, Mosher JC, Pantazis D, Leahy RM, “Brainstorm: A User-Friendly Application for MEG/EEG Analysis,” Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, vol. 2011, Article ID 879716, 13 pages, 2011. doi:10.1155/2011/879716 [ html, pdf ]
Database explorer
The file manager has been extended to support drag'n'drop and copy-paste operations. You can now move or copy easily the files from a condition or subject to another with the mouse, or using the keyboard shortcuts CTRL+C (copy), CTRL+X (cut) and CTRL+V (paste), or the File section in the popup menu.See tutorial: ?First steps.
Warping default anatomy
It is now possible to create pseudo-individual anatomies for the subjects for which you do not have any anatomical MRI. This operation is possible only if you have acquired some head points using a tracking system (eg. Polhemus Isotrak). The default anatomy (MNI/Colin27) is transformed to match those match those head points. See tutorial: Warping default anatomy.
Refine registration using head points
When importing MEG recordings, the registration between the sensors and the anatomy was based until now only on three points (nasion, left ear, right ear). This registration can be very imprecise in some cases. If you have digitized many head points with a tracking system before the recordings acquisition, the registration can be refined by trying to minimize the distance between the scalp surface and those digitized head points. This operation will be performed automatically for new datasets, but can also be called manually: right-click on channel file > MRI registration > Refine registration using head points. See tutorial: ?Refine registration using head points.
April 2011
BEM head model for EEG users
Great news for the EEG users, a new option is available for the computation of the head model: OpenMEEG BEM. This forward model uses a symmetric boundary element method and was developed by the French public research institute INRIA (website). It uses three realistic layers (scalp, inner skull, outer skull) that can be generated in Brainstorm. It provides for EEG a much better forward solution than the previous "3-shell sphere" model. EEG users should try to switch to this method quickly. It is not necessary for MEG users, as the "overlapping spheres" method gives very similar results but much faster. See tutorial: BEM head model.
Source estimation for the full brain volume
The head models computed with Brainstorm were until now limited to the cortex surface. This choice was following the assumption that most of the magnetic and electric activity that we record outside of the head comes from the cortex. It was a serious limitiation for users who wanted to study some deeper regions and use their own source spaces. To extend the range of analysis possible with Brainstorm, we have added the possibility to construct dipole grids that sample the full brain volume, and the appropriate visualization tools. See tutorial: Volume source estimation.
March 2011
Combined MEG/EEG source reconstruction
The way the contributions of MEG and EEG information are balanced in the combined source estimation has been largely improved. However, we still consider this feature as very experimental and recommend the average user to reconstruct the sources for EEG and MEG separately.
MRI displays: Contact sheets and smoothing
Many new tools for the visualization of sources on MRI slices. First, the sources values are smoothed in space after being re-interpolated in the MRI, which gives nicer and more readable images. The size of the smoothing kernel can be configured: right-click on the figure > MRI display. Then, those images can be used to create contact sheets along all the directions, either in time or in volume. See tutorial: ?Source estimation.
December 2010
Statistical tests: correction for multiple comparisons
When displaying the results of a t-test, there is now a new tab "stat" that is shown in the main window, that allows to changed dynamically the type of correction for multiple comparisons and the threshold.
Graphical batching interface
A completely new version of the "Process" tab is available. It allows the creation of a full processing pipeline in a few clicks, that can be saved or exported as a Matlab script. The processes that are available in the interface are now written in a plug-in way, to make it much easier the future development of new processes. See tutorial: ?Processes.
September 2010
Continuous/RAW file viewer and event editor
Detection of bad trials / bad channels
New process available to detect bad trials or bad trials based on peak-to-peak values. The peak-to-peak threshold can be set by channel type.
Estimation of the noise covariance from continuous files
Import/export protocols and subjects
June 2010
Time-frequency
Brodman and Tzourio-Mazoyer atlases
Recordings visualization: 2D Layout
March 2010
Support for Xfit dipoles files
Minimum norm solution
Now using a more stable minimum norm solution.
Januray 2010
Project sources on default anatomy
Display channels in columns
& sensor selection
Support for native 4D/BTi file format
December 2009