ciftiTools: A package for reading, writing, visualizing and manipulating CIFTI files in R

TL;DR

ciftiTools is an R package that simplifies reading, writing, visualizing, and manipulating CIFTI grayordinate files, facilitating advanced brain data analysis in R.

Contribution

This paper introduces ciftiTools, the first comprehensive R package for CIFTI file handling, enabling advanced grayordinate-based neuroimaging analysis.

Findings

Enables efficient handling of CIFTI files in R

Supports advanced statistical analysis of grayordinate data

Facilitates improved visualization of brain surface data

Abstract

There is significant interest in adopting surface- and grayordinate-based analysis of MR data for a number of reasons, including improved whole-cortex visualization, the ability to perform surface smoothing to avoid issues associated with volumetric smoothing, improved inter-subject alignment, and reduced dimensionality. The CIFTI grayordinate file format introduced by the Human Connectome Project further advances grayordinate-based analysis by combining gray matter data from the left and right cortical hemispheres with gray matter data from the subcortex and cerebellum into a single file. Analyses performed in grayordinate space are well-suited to leverage information shared across the brain and across subjects through both traditional analysis techniques and more advanced statistical methods, including Bayesian methods. The R statistical environment facilitates use of advanced statistical techniques, yet little support for grayordinates analysis has been previously available in R. Indeed, few comprehensive programmatic tools for working with CIFTI files have been available in any language. Here, we present the ciftiTools R package, which provides a unified environment for reading, writing, visualizing, and manipulating CIFTI files and related data formats. We illustrate ciftiTools' convenient and user-friendly suite of tools for working with grayordinates and surface geometry data in R, and we describe how ciftiTools is being utilized to advance the statistical analysis of grayordinate-based functional MRI data.