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DOC: Refinement of confounds documentation after #1877
This PR addresses further issues: - Address warnings 2) and 3) of #1049 - Close #1049, and I've opened #1905 to follow up conversations - Add documentation about DCT regressors, close #1167. - Address items 2) and 3) of #1521.
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docs/outputs.rst

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@@ -29,8 +29,11 @@ Derivatives specification (see `BIDS Derivatives RC1`_).
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.. important::
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In order to remain agnostic to any possible subsequent analysis,
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*fMRIPrep* does not perform any denoising (e.g., spatial smoothing) itself.
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The only exception to this principle is the ICA-AROMA's *non-aggressive* denoising
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(see below).
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There are two exceptions to this principle (described in their corresponding
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sections below):
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- ICA-AROMA's *non-aggressive* denoised outputs, and
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- CompCor regressors, which are calculated after temporal high-pass filtering.
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Visual Reports
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--------------
@@ -285,16 +288,36 @@ the command line options ``--fd-spike-threshold`` and ``--dvars-spike-threshold`
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(default: FD > 0.5 mm or DVARS > 1.5).
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Spike regressors are stored in separate ``motion_outlier_XX`` columns.
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**AROMA confounds**.
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:abbr:`AROMA (Automatic Removal Of Motion Artifacts)` is an :abbr:`ICA (independent components analysis)`
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based procedure to identify confounding time series related to head-motion [Prium2015]_.
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ICA-AROMA can be enabled with the flag ``--use-aroma``.
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- ``aroma_motion_XX`` - the motion-related components identified by ICA-AROMA.
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.. danger::
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If you are already using ICA-AROMA cleaned data (``~desc-smoothAROMAnonaggr_bold.nii.gz``),
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do not include ICA-AROMA confounds during your design specification or denoising procedure.
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**Discrete cosine-basis regressors**.
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Physiological and instrumental (scanner) noise sources are generally present in fMRI
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data, typically taking the form of low-frequency signal drifts.
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To account for these drifts, temporal high-pass filtering is the immediate option.
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Alternatively, low-frequency regressors can be included in regression to account
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for these confounding signals.
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Using the :abbr:`DCT (discrete cosine transform)` basis functions, *fMRIPrep* generates
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these low-frequency predictors:
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- ``cosine_XX`` - DCT-basis regressors.
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One characteristic of the cosine regressors is that they are identical for two different
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datasets with the same :abbr:`TR (repetition time)` and the same *effective* number of
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time points (*effective* length).
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It is relevant to mention *effective* because initial time points identified as *nonsteady
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states* are removed before generating the cosine regressors.
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.. caution::
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If the analysis includes your own high-pass filtering step, the ``cosine_XX``
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regressors may interfere (meaning, they may re-introduce drifts) if included
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in the design matrix.
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.. admonition:: See also
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- A detailed explanation about temporal high-pass filtering is provided with
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the `BrainVoyager User Guide
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<http://www.brainvoyager.com/bvqx/doc/UsersGuide/Preprocessing/TemporalHighPassFiltering.html>`_.
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- `This comment
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<https://github.com/poldracklab/fmriprep/issues/1899#issuecomment-561687460>`__
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on an issue regarding CompCor regressors.
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**CompCor confounds**.
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:abbr:`CompCor (Component Based Noise Correction)` is a :abbr:`PCA (principal component analysis)`,
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three different noise ROIs: an eroded white matter mask, an eroded CSF mask, and a combined mask derived
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from the union of these.
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.. warning::
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Only a subset of these CompCor decompositions should be used for further denoising.
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The original Behzadi aCompCor implementation [Behzadi2007]_ can be applied using
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components from the combined masks, while the more recent Muschelli implementation
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[Muschelli2014]_ can be applied using
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the :abbr:`WM (white matter)` and :abbr:`CSF (cerebro-spinal fluid)` masks. To determine the provenance
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of each component, consult the metadata file (see below).
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Make sure you check on `this didactic discussion on NeuroStars.org
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<https://neurostars.org/t/fmrirep-outputs-very-high-number-of-acompcors-up-to-1000/5451>`__
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where Patrick Sadil gets into details about PCA and how that base technique applies
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to CompCor in general and *fMRIPrep*'s implementation in particular.
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Each confounds data file will also have a corresponding metadata file
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(``~desc-confounds_regressors.json``).
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Metadata files contain additional information about columns in the confounds TSV file:
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Entries that are not saved in the data file for denoising are still stored in metadata with the
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``dropped`` prefix.
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.. caution::
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Only a subset of these CompCor decompositions should be used for further denoising.
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The original Behzadi aCompCor implementation [Behzadi2007]_ can be applied using
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components from the combined masks, while the more recent Muschelli implementation
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[Muschelli2014]_ can be applied using
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the :abbr:`WM (white matter)` and :abbr:`CSF (cerebro-spinal fluid)` masks.
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To determine the provenance of each component, consult the metadata file (described above).
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.. caution::
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Similarly, if you are using anatomical or temporal CompCor it may not make sense
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to use global signal regressors (``csf``, ``white_matter``, or ``global_signal``) -
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see `#1049 <https://github.com/poldracklab/fmriprep/issues/1049>`_.
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.. danger::
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*fMRIPrep* does high-pass filtering before running anatomical or temporal CompCor.
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Therefore, when using CompCor regressors, the corresponding ``cosine_XX`` regressors
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should be included too in the design matrix.
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.. admonition:: See also
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This didactic `discussion on NeuroStars.org
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<https://neurostars.org/t/fmrirep-outputs-very-high-number-of-acompcors-up-to-1000/5451>`__
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where Patrick Sadil gets into details about PCA and how that base technique applies
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to CompCor in general and *fMRIPrep*'s implementation in particular.
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**AROMA confounds**.
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:abbr:`AROMA (Automatic Removal Of Motion Artifacts)` is an :abbr:`ICA (independent components analysis)`
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based procedure to identify confounding time series related to head-motion [Prium2015]_.
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ICA-AROMA can be enabled with the flag ``--use-aroma``.
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- ``aroma_motion_XX`` - the motion-related components identified by ICA-AROMA.
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.. danger::
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If you are already using ICA-AROMA cleaned data (``~desc-smoothAROMAnonaggr_bold.nii.gz``),
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do not include ICA-AROMA confounds during your design specification or denoising procedure.
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Confounds and "carpet"-plot on the visual reports
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The visual reports provide several sections per task and run to aid designing

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