Spatially Unbiased Infratentorial Template (SUIT)

SUIT is a Matlab toolbox dedicated to the analysis of imaging data of the human cerebellum. The toolbox contains a high-resolution atlas template of the human cerebellum and brainstem, based on the anatomy of 20 young healthy individuals. By using automated isolation and nonlinear normalization methods, a more accurate intersubject-alignment than current whole-brain methods can be achieved. The toolbox you to...

• automatically isolate cerebellar structures from the cerebral cortex based on an anatomical image.
• achieve accurate anatomical normalisation of cerebellar structures into atlas space using the Dartel algorithm.
• display the functional data on a surface-based flatmap representation.
• normalize focal cerebellar lesions for lesion-symptom mapping.
• use Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to determine patterns of cerebellar degeneration or growth.
• use a probabilistic atlas of cerebellar anatomy to assign locations to different cerebellar lobules and deep cerebellar nuclei.
• use a collection of functional atlases based on task-based data and task-free connectivity to define regions of interest.
• improve normalization of the deep cerebellar nuclei using an ROI-driven normalization.

For more information on SUIT, please visit http://diedrichsenlab.org/imaging/suit.htm. Some functionality of the SUIT toolbox is also covered under the current Python release at https://github.com/DiedrichsenLab/SUITPy. For a collection of cerebellar atlases and contrast maps, see https://github.com/DiedrichsenLab/cerebellar_atlases.

Licence and Acknowledgements

The SUIT toolbox has been developed by J. Diedrichsen (joern.diedrichsen@googlemail.com), C. Hernandez-Castillo, M. King, G. Prichard, N. Lally, T.Wiestler, J. Schlerf, D. Zhi, and many others. It is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License, meaning that it can be freely used for non-commercial purposes, as long as proper attribution in form of acknowledgments and links (for online use) or citations (in publications) are given. The relevant references are:

SUIT normalisation and template

• Diedrichsen, J. (2006). A spatially unbiased atlas template of the human cerebellum. Neuroimage. 33(1), 127-138.

Probabilistic atlas for cerebellar lobules

• Diedrichsen, J., Balsters, J. H., Flavell, J., Cussans, E., & Ramnani, N. (2009). A probabilistic atlas of the human cerebellum. Neuroimage.46(1), 39-46.

Probabilistic atlas and normalisation for deep cerebellar nuclei

• Diedrichsen, J., Maderwald, S., Kuper, M., Thurling, M., Rabe, K., Gizewski, E. R., et al. (2011). Imaging the deep cerebellar nuclei: A probabilistic atlas and normalization procedure. Neuroimage. 54(3), 1786-1794.

Surface-based representation and flatmap

• Diedrichsen, J. & Zotow, E. (2015). Surface-based display of volume-averaged cerebellar data. PLOSOne.

SUIT-N: Neonatal template, isolation and normalization

• Hernandez-Castillo, CR., Limperopoulos, C., & Diedrichsen, J. (2019). A representative template of the neonatal cerebellum. Neuroimage. 184, 450-454.

Installation

The suit-toolbox requires Matlab (Version 6.5 and higher) and SPM. The newest version requires SPM12, but the old functions are still available for backward compatibility . A full standalone version for the suit-toolbox in matlab is not planned. Usage of the isolation or normalization functions, however, does not require that the analysis is conducted under SPM.

• Unzip the archive and place the SUIT folder in the <SPM_HOME>/toolbox/ directory. Alternatively you can keep the toolbox somewhere else and place a symbolic link in the <SPM_HOME>/toolbox/ directory.
• Start Matlab and SPM12. Select fMRI. SUIT should now be present as a option under the toolbox drop down menu.
• All functionality can also be directly accessed by calling the corresponding functions (suit_*) from the matlab prompt.
• The template images can be found in <SPM_HOME>/toolbox/SUIT/templates. If you like, create a copy of these templates at a more accessible place.