CONN

Software description

CONN is an open-source Matlab/SPM-based cross-platform software for the computation, display, and analysis of functional connectivity Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fcMRI). CONN is used to analyze resting state data (rsfMRI) as well as task-related designs. Processing and analysis steps in CONN include:

• Importing DICOM, ANALYZE, and NIfTI functional and anatomical files
• Preprocessing of functional and anatomical volumes (e.g. SPM8/SPM12 realignment, slice-timing correction, outlier identification, coregistration, segmentation, normalization, smoothing)
• Control of residual physiological and motion artifacts (e.g. scrubbing, aCompCor, ICA-based denoising, Global Regression)
• Integrated quality control procedures and measures (e.g. FC histogram plots, BOLD signal carpetplots, Framewise Displacement, GCOR measures, FC-QC correlations)
• Multiple connectivity analyses and measures, including Seed-Based Correlations (SBC), ROI-to-ROI analyses, complex-network analyses, generalized Psycho-Physiological Interaction models (gPPI), Independent Component Analyses (group-ICA), masked ICA, Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations (ALFF & fALFF), Intrinsic Connectivity (ICC), Local Homogeneity (LCOR), Global Correlations (GCOR), Multivoxel Pattern Analyses (MVPA), and dynamic connectivity analyses (dyn-ICA, sliding-window correlations)
• Group- and population-level inferences and models, including ANOVA, regression, longitudinal, experimental, and mixed within- and between-subject designs. Control for multiple comparisons using parametric and non-parametric permutation/randomization techniques

When used within a distributed cluster, HPC, or multi-processor environment CONN can automatically parallelize most time consuming steps in the fcMRI processing pipeline, allowing the analyses of hundreds of subjects in minimal time. CONN can be entirely controlled through a user-friendly GUI, or through batch scripts/commands if preferred.

The toolbox is developed in Matlab, and it is distributed both as Matlab source code and as a pre-compiled executable file (standalone release, no Matlab installations or licenses required).

Citing CONN

To cite CONN in your work please include one or several of the following references:

• CONN toolbox (www.nitrc.org/projects/conn, RRID:SCR_009550)
• Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., and Nieto-Castanon, A. (2012). Conn: A functional connectivity toolbox for correlated and anticorrelated brain networks. Brain Connectivity. doi:10.1089/brain.2012.0073

www.conn-toolbox.org

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