Advanced ROI Construction

In neuroim2: Data Structures for Brain Imaging Data

knitr::opts_chunk$set(collapse = T, comment = "#>", message = FALSE, warning = FALSE)
suppressPackageStartupMessages({
  library(purrr)
  library(neuroim2)
})
options(mc.cores=1)

This article is now the detailed ROI reference to read after vignette("AnalysisWorkflows"). The core workflow vignette shows when to use ROIs; this article goes deeper into the different ROI constructors and ROI data structures available in neuroim2.

ROI types in neuroim2

The package supports several ROI styles, depending on whether you want one simple neighborhood, a grid-based box, a parcel map, or a weighted kernel:

| ROI Type | Function | Description | Use Case | |----------|----------|-------------|----------| | Spherical | spherical_roi() | Sphere around a center point | Searchlight analysis, seed-based connectivity | | Cuboid | cuboid_roi() | Rectangular box region | Grid-based parcellation | | Square | square_roi() | 2D square in one plane | Slice-based analysis | | Clustered | ClusteredNeuroVol | Parcellation-based regions | Atlas-based analysis | | Custom | Kernel | Weighted regions | Gaussian-weighted, gradient-based |

Quick start

file_name <- system.file("extdata", "global_mask2.nii.gz", package="neuroim2")
vol <- read_vol(file_name)

roi <- spherical_roi(vol, c(20, 20, 20), radius = 5)
cat("ROI contains", length(roi), "voxels\n")

---

Basic ROI operations

The introductory ROI extraction and searchlight workflow now lives in vignette("AnalysisWorkflows"). This article stays focused on ROI construction, representation, and less common ROI variants.

Creating a Spherical ROI

Spherical ROIs are still the base constructor most other workflows build on, so this article starts there and then moves into less common patterns.

# Load an example brain volume
file_name <- system.file("extdata", "global_mask2.nii.gz", package="neuroim2")
vol <- read_vol(file_name)

# Create a spherical ROI centered at voxel coordinates [20,20,20]
# with a 5mm radius, filling all values with 100
sphere <- spherical_roi(vol, c(20, 20, 20), radius = 5, fill = 100)

# Examine the ROI
cat("Number of voxels in ROI:", length(sphere), "\n")
cat("ROI dimensions:", dim(sphere), "\n")
cat("All values are 100:", all(sphere == 100), "\n")

Performance Note: C++ vs Pure R Implementation

# The spherical_roi function can use either C++ (fast) or pure R (slower)
# C++ is the default and recommended for performance
sphere_cpp <- spherical_roi(vol, c(20, 20, 20), radius = 5, use_cpp = TRUE)
sphere_r   <- spherical_roi(vol, c(20, 20, 20), radius = 5, use_cpp = FALSE)

# They produce the same voxel set (up to ordering and type)
all.equal(
  coords(sphere_cpp)[order(coords(sphere_cpp)[,1], coords(sphere_cpp)[,2], coords(sphere_cpp)[,3]),],
  coords(sphere_r)[order(coords(sphere_r)[,1], coords(sphere_r)[,2], coords(sphere_r)[,3]),],
  check.attributes = FALSE
)

Creating a Spherical ROI Around Real-World Coordinates

Often, you'll have coordinates in millimeter space (e.g., from published studies) rather than voxel indices.

# Define a real-world coordinate in mm
rpoint <- c(-34, -28, 10)

# Convert real-world coordinates to voxel coordinates
vox <- coord_to_grid(vol, rpoint)
cat("Real coordinate:", rpoint, "-> Voxel coordinate:", vox, "\n")

# Create spherical ROI with 10mm radius
sphere <- spherical_roi(vol, vox, radius = 10, fill = 1)
cat("ROI contains", length(sphere), "voxels\n")

# Verify the center of mass is close to our target
coords <- index_to_coord(vol, indices(sphere))
center_of_mass <- colMeans(coords)
cat("Center of mass:", center_of_mass, "\n")
cat("Original point:", rpoint, "\n")

Creating Multiple Spherical ROIs Efficiently

When creating many ROIs, use the vectorized spherical_roi_set() function for better performance:

library(neuroim2)
vol <- read_vol(system.file("extdata", "global_mask_v4.nii", package = "neuroim2"))
d <- dim(vol)

# Define multiple ROI centers
centers <- rbind(
  c(floor(d[1]/3), floor(d[2]/3), floor(d[3]/3)),
  c(floor(d[1]/2), floor(d[2]/2), floor(d[3]/2)),
  c(floor(2*d[1]/3), floor(2*d[2]/3), floor(2*d[3]/3))
)

# Efficient vectorized creation
rois <- spherical_roi_set(bvol = vol, centroids = centers, radius = 5, fill = 1)
cat("Created", length(rois), "ROIs\n")

# Compare with loop approach (slower but equivalent)
rois2 <- lapply(seq_len(nrow(centers)), function(i) {
  spherical_roi(vol, centers[i,], 5, fill = 1)
})
cat("Loop method also created", length(rois2), "ROIs\n")

Creating Cuboid and Square ROIs

Cuboid ROIs (3D boxes)

# Create a cuboid ROI - a 3D rectangular box
sp1 <- NeuroSpace(c(20, 20, 20), c(1, 1, 1))

# Create a 7x7x7 cube (surround=3 means 3 voxels on each side of center)
cube <- cuboid_roi(sp1, c(10, 10, 10), surround = 3, fill = 5)
cat("Cuboid ROI contains", length(cube), "voxels\n")
cat("All values are 5:", all(cube == 5), "\n")

# Get the coordinates
vox_coords <- coords(cube)
cat("Coordinate ranges:\n")
cat("  X:", range(vox_coords[,1]), "\n")
cat("  Y:", range(vox_coords[,2]), "\n")
cat("  Z:", range(vox_coords[,3]), "\n")

Square ROIs (2D in 3D space)

# Create a square ROI - a 2D square fixed in one dimension
sp1 <- NeuroSpace(c(20, 20, 20), c(1, 1, 1))

# Create a 5x5 square in the z=10 plane (fixdim=3 fixes the z dimension)
square <- square_roi(sp1, c(10, 10, 10), surround = 2, fill = 3, fixdim = 3)
cat("Square ROI contains", length(square), "voxels (should be 25)\n")

# Verify it's planar
vox_coords <- coords(square)
cat("All z-coordinates are the same:", 
    length(unique(vox_coords[,3])) == 1, "\n")
cat("Z-plane:", unique(vox_coords[,3]), "\n")

---

Working with ROI Data

Converting ROIs to Sparse Volumes

Sparse volumes are memory-efficient representations that only store non-zero values:

# Create a spherical ROI
sphere <- spherical_roi(vol, c(50, 10, 10), radius = 10, fill = 1)
cat("ROI contains", length(sphere), "voxels\n")

# Convert to SparseNeuroVol - memory efficient storage
# Prefer the provided coercion helper
sparsevol <- as.sparse(sphere)

# Verify properties
cat("Sum of values match:", sum(sparsevol) == sum(sphere), "\n")
cat("Dimensions match:", all(dim(sparsevol) == dim(vol)), "\n")

# Memory comparison
roi_size <- object.size(sphere)
sparse_size <- object.size(sparsevol)
cat("Memory usage - ROI:", format(roi_size, units = "auto"), "\n")
cat("Memory usage - Sparse:", format(sparse_size, units = "auto"), "\n")

The basic 4D ROI extraction workflow with series_roi() now lives in vignette("AnalysisWorkflows"). The current article keeps the lower-level ROI data structures and construction details.

Using ROIVec for 4D ROI Data

The ROIVec class is designed for efficient storage of 4D ROI data:

# Create a 4D NeuroSpace
vspace <- NeuroSpace(dim = c(10, 10, 10, 20), spacing = c(1, 1, 1))

# Define ROI coordinates
roi_coords <- matrix(c(5,5,5, 6,5,5, 5,6,5, 5,5,6), ncol = 3, byrow = TRUE)

# Create synthetic time-series data for each voxel
n_timepoints <- 20
n_voxels <- nrow(roi_coords)
roi_data <- matrix(rnorm(n_timepoints * n_voxels), 
                   nrow = n_timepoints, ncol = n_voxels)

# Create ROIVec object
roi_vec <- ROIVec(vspace, roi_coords, roi_data)
cat("ROIVec created with", nrow(roi_coords), "voxels and", 
    nrow(roi_data), "timepoints\n")

# Access as matrix of values (T x N)
roi_matrix <- values(roi_vec)
cat("Matrix dimensions (T x N):", dim(roi_matrix), "\n")

Searchlight workflows, including searchlight(), random_searchlight(), and clustered_searchlight(), are now covered in vignette("AnalysisWorkflows"). That keeps the current article focused on constructing ROIs and ROI-like data objects rather than on the first-pass analyses built on top of them.

---

Image Patches

Patches are regular, fixed-size regions that tile the image space, useful for convolutional approaches:

# Create 3x3x1 patches covering the volume
pset <- patch_set(vol, dims = c(3, 3, 1))
cat("Number of patches:", length(pset), "\n")

# Compute statistics for each patch
patch_means <- pset %>% purrr::map_dbl(~ mean(.))
cat("Patch mean range:", range(patch_means, na.rm = TRUE), "\n")

# Restrict patches to masked regions only
pset_masked <- patch_set(vol, dims = c(3, 3, 1), mask = as.logical(vol))
cat("Masked patches:", length(pset_masked), "\n")

# Patches are guaranteed to be equal size (padded at edges if needed)
patch_sizes <- pset_masked %>% purrr::map_int(~ length(.))
cat("All patches same size:", length(unique(patch_sizes)) == 1, "\n")
cat("Patch size:", unique(patch_sizes), "voxels\n")

---

Advanced ROI Techniques

Custom Weighted ROIs with Kernels

Create Gaussian-weighted or other custom-shaped ROIs:

# Create a Gaussian kernel for weighted ROI
kern_dim <- c(5, 5, 5)  # 5x5x5 kernel
voxel_dim <- c(1, 1, 1)  # 1mm isotropic voxels

# Create Gaussian-weighted kernel
gauss_kernel <- Kernel(kerndim = kern_dim, vdim = voxel_dim, 
                       FUN = dnorm, sd = 1.5)

# Embed kernel at a specific location
embedded <- embed_kernel(gauss_kernel, space(vol), 
                         center_voxel = c(20, 20, 20))
cat("Kernel weights sum to:", sum(embedded), "\n")

Working with ClusteredNeuroVec for Parcellated Data

Efficiently handle parcellated 4D data where voxels are grouped into regions:

# Create synthetic 4D data
sp4 <- NeuroSpace(c(10, 10, 10, 20), c(1, 1, 1))
arr <- array(rnorm(10*10*10*20), dim = c(10, 10, 10, 20))
vec <- NeuroVec(arr, sp4)

# Create mask for central region
sp3 <- NeuroSpace(c(10, 10, 10), c(1, 1, 1))
mask_arr <- array(FALSE, dim = c(10, 10, 10))
mask_arr[3:8, 3:8, 3:8] <- TRUE
mask <- LogicalNeuroVol(mask_arr, sp3)

# Assign voxels to 5 random clusters
n_voxels <- sum(mask_arr)
clusters <- sample(1:5, n_voxels, replace = TRUE)
cvol <- ClusteredNeuroVol(mask, clusters)

# Create clustered representation - one time-series per cluster
cv <- ClusteredNeuroVec(vec, cvol)

# Access cluster time-series efficiently
cluster_matrix <- as.matrix(cv)  # T x K matrix
cat("Cluster matrix dimensions:", dim(cluster_matrix), "\n")
cat("(", dim(cluster_matrix)[1], "timepoints x", 
    dim(cluster_matrix)[2], "clusters)\n")

ROI Set Operations

Combine and manipulate multiple ROIs:

# Create two overlapping spherical ROIs
roi1 <- spherical_roi(vol, c(20, 20, 20), radius = 6, fill = 1)
roi2 <- spherical_roi(vol, c(23, 20, 20), radius = 6, fill = 1)

# Get indices for set operations
idx1 <- indices(roi1)
idx2 <- indices(roi2)

# Intersection - voxels in both ROIs
intersection_idx <- intersect(idx1, idx2)
cat("Intersection:", length(intersection_idx), "voxels\n")

# Union - voxels in either ROI
union_idx <- union(idx1, idx2)
cat("Union:", length(union_idx), "voxels\n")

# Difference - voxels in roi1 but not roi2
diff_idx <- setdiff(idx1, idx2)
cat("Difference (roi1 - roi2):", length(diff_idx), "voxels\n")

# Calculate overlap percentage
overlap_pct <- length(intersection_idx) / length(union_idx) * 100
cat("Overlap:", round(overlap_pct, 1), "%\n")

---

Best Practices and Performance

Memory Management

When working with many ROIs, consider memory usage:

# Compare memory usage of different ROI storage methods
n_rois <- 100
centers <- matrix(runif(n_rois * 3, 5, 15), ncol = 3)

# Method 1: List of ROI objects (flexible but more memory)
  roi_list <- lapply(1:nrow(centers), function(i) {
  spherical_roi(vol, centers[i,], radius = 6, fill = 1)
  })

# Method 2: Single sparse volume with labeled regions (ensure increasing indices)
all_indices <- list()
all_labels <- list()
for (i in 1:nrow(centers)) {
  roi <- spherical_roi(vol, centers[i,], radius = 6)
  idx <- indices(roi)
  idx <- sort(unique(idx))
  all_indices[[i]] <- idx
  all_labels[[i]] <- rep(i, length(idx))
}
idx_all <- unlist(all_indices)
lab_all <- unlist(all_labels)
ord <- order(idx_all)
idx_all <- idx_all[ord]
lab_all <- lab_all[ord]
# Ensure strictly increasing indices by removing duplicates
keep <- !duplicated(idx_all)
idx_all <- idx_all[keep]
lab_all <- lab_all[keep]
combined_sparse <- SparseNeuroVol(lab_all, space(vol), indices = idx_all)

cat("Memory usage:\n")
cat("  ROI list:", format(object.size(roi_list), units = "auto"), "\n")
cat("  Sparse combined:", format(object.size(combined_sparse), units = "auto"), "\n")

Choosing ROI Sizes

Guidelines for selecting appropriate ROI sizes:

# Demonstrate effect of ROI size on coverage and overlap
radii <- c(6, 8, 10, 12)
coverage_stats <- data.frame(
  radius = radii,
  n_voxels = numeric(length(radii)),
  pct_overlap = numeric(length(radii))
)

center1 <- c(20, 20, 20)
center2 <- c(25, 20, 20)  # 5 voxels apart

for (i in seq_along(radii)) {
  roi1 <- spherical_roi(vol, center1, radius = radii[i])
  roi2 <- spherical_roi(vol, center2, radius = radii[i])

  coverage_stats$n_voxels[i] <- length(roi1)

  overlap <- length(intersect(indices(roi1), indices(roi2)))
  total <- length(union(indices(roi1), indices(roi2)))
  coverage_stats$pct_overlap[i] <- overlap / total * 100
}

print(coverage_stats)

Parallel Processing Tips

For large-scale ROI analyses, consider parallel processing:

# Example of parallel searchlight analysis (not run in vignette)
library(parallel)
library(foreach)
library(doParallel)

# Setup parallel backend
n_cores <- detectCores() - 1
cl <- makeCluster(n_cores)
registerDoParallel(cl)

# Parallel searchlight computation
searchlight_results <- foreach(roi = searchlight_list, 
                               .packages = c("neuroim2")) %dopar% {
  # Your analysis function here
  mean(data[coords(roi)])
}

# Clean up
stopCluster(cl)

---

Troubleshooting and Tips

Common Issues and Solutions

Issue: ROI extends outside brain mask

# Problem: ROI at edge of brain
edge_vox <- c(2, 2, 2)  # Near edge of volume

# Solution 1: Use nonzero=TRUE to keep only mask voxels
roi_filtered <- spherical_roi(vol, edge_vox, radius = 5, nonzero = TRUE)
cat("Filtered ROI size:", length(roi_filtered), "voxels\n")

# Solution 2: Check if ROI is valid before analysis
if (length(roi_filtered) < 10) {
  cat("Warning: ROI too small for reliable analysis\n")
}

Issue: Different coordinate systems

# Always verify your coordinate system
test_coord_mm <- c(-34, -28, 10)  # MNI coordinates
test_coord_vox <- coord_to_grid(vol, test_coord_mm)

# Verify round-trip conversion
back_to_mm <- grid_to_coord(vol, matrix(test_coord_vox, nrow = 1))
cat("Original (mm):", test_coord_mm, "\n")
cat("Voxel:", test_coord_vox, "\n")  
cat("Back to mm:", back_to_mm, "\n")

---

See Also

For related functionality, see these other vignettes and help pages:

• vignette("NeuroVector") - Working with 4D neuroimaging data
• ?read_vec and ?read_vol - Reading neuroimaging files
• ?NeuroSpace - Understanding coordinate systems and spaces
• ?ClusteredNeuroVol - Parcellation-based analyses
• ?SparseNeuroVol - Memory-efficient sparse representations
• ?series and ?series_roi - Time-series extraction

For the complete list of ROI-related functions:

help(package = "neuroim2", topic = "roi")

neuroim2 documentation built on April 16, 2026, 5:07 p.m.