resampled_searchlight: Create a resampled searchlight iterator

In neuroim2: Data Structures for Brain Imaging Data

Create a resampled searchlight iterator

Description

This function generates a resampled searchlight iterator by sampling regions from within a brain mask. By default it builds spherical searchlights, but users can provide a custom shape_fun to return ellipsoids, cubes, or arbitrary irregular searchlight shapes. Centers are drawn with replacement, so the same voxel (and its neighborhood) may appear multiple times. Each searchlight can also draw its radius from a user-specified set of radii.

Usage

resampled_searchlight(
  mask,
  radius = 8,
  iter = 100,
  shape_fun = NULL,
  nonzero = TRUE
)

bootstrap_searchlight(mask, radius = 8, iter = 100)

Arguments

mask	A NeuroVol object representing the brain mask.
radius	A numeric scalar or vector specifying candidate radii (in voxel units) for the searchlight sphere. If a vector is supplied, a radius is sampled uniformly (with replacement) for each searchlight. All radii must be positive. Default is 8.
iter	An integer specifying the total number of searchlights to sample (with replacement). Default is 100.
shape_fun	Either NULL (default spherical kernel), a character keyword ("sphere", "ellipsoid", "cube", "blobby"), or a custom function. Custom functions are called as shape_fun(mask, center, radius, iter, nonzero) and must return either a ROIVolWindow or an n x 3 integer matrix of voxel coordinates. This enables anisotropic or irregular searchlights.
nonzero	Logical; if TRUE (default), the generated searchlight is intersected with the non-zero voxels of mask. Applies to both the default sphere and any shape_fun that returns coordinates.

Details

Searchlight centers are sampled with replacement, so the same center (and its surrounding voxels) can be selected multiple times. When multiple radii are provided, each searchlight independently samples one radius from the supplied values. Supplying shape_fun lets you draw non-spherical searchlights (e.g., ellipsoids, cubes, blobby deformations, or task-specific kernels). Built-in shortcuts are available via shape_fun = "ellipsoid", "cube", and "blobby"; "sphere" or NULL uses the default spherical kernel.

Value

A deferred_list object containing ROIVolWindow objects, each representing a sampled searchlight region drawn from within the mask.

Examples

# Load an example brain mask
mask <- read_vol(system.file("extdata", "global_mask_v4.nii", package="neuroim2"))

# Generate a resampled searchlight iterator with radii drawn from {4,6,8}
searchlights <- resampled_searchlight(mask, radius = c(4, 6, 8))

# Use a custom shape: random ellipsoid scaled along each axis
ellipsoid_fun <- function(mask, center, radius, iter, nonzero) {
  scales <- runif(3, 0.5, 1.5)        # axis-wise stretch/compress
  vox <- spherical_roi(mask, center, radius, nonzero = FALSE)@coords
  ctr_mat <- matrix(center, nrow(vox), 3, byrow = TRUE)
  keep <- rowSums(((vox - ctr_mat) * scales)^2) <= radius^2
  vox[keep, , drop = FALSE]
}
ellip_searchlights <- resampled_searchlight(mask, radius = c(4, 6),
                                            iter = 50, shape_fun = ellipsoid_fun)

# Or use built-in named shapes
ellip_builtin <- resampled_searchlight(mask, radius = 6, shape_fun = "ellipsoid")
cube_builtin  <- resampled_searchlight(mask, radius = 6, shape_fun = "cube")

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