BrainVoyager — Past, present, future

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 62; no. 2; pp. 748 - 756
• Main Author: Goebel, Rainer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 15.08.2012; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Auditory perception; Brain - physiology; Brain Mapping - methods; Data analysis; Data processing; DWI; EEG; Electroencephalography - methods; Feedback; fMRI; fNIRS; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Magnetoencephalography - methods; Medical imaging; MEG; Methods; Real-time analysis; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Singers; Software; Software packages; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared - methods; TMS; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation - methods; fMRI; fNIRS; Real-time analysis; EEG; DWI; Software; TMS; Methods; MEG
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.083

BrainVoyager started as a simple fMRI analysis tool in the mid 1990s; the software was primarily created to fulfill the needs of its author and his colleagues to analyze anatomical and functional MRI data in a way that would be most appropriate for their research questions in visual and auditory perception. More specifically, the software was designed with three major goals in mind. First, it should allow analyses that would exploit optimally the high-resolution information available in fMRI data. Second, it should integrate volume-based analysis and cortex-based analysis including the possibility to visualize topographic activation data on flattened cortex representations. Third, it should combine hypothesis testing with data-driven analysis including interactive visualization tools that would make it as easy as possible to look at and explore data. A fourth guiding principle was to develop a software package that fulfilled the author's preference for elegant user interfaces, beautiful visualizations and high-performance computing. These major guiding principles from the beginning of BrainVoyager development are still noticeable in the most recent incarnations of the software that has grown from a small fMRI analysis tool on the Windows platform to a comprehensive cross-platform multi-modal software package integrating (real-time) fMRI, DWI/DTI, (i)EEG, MEG, TMS and fNIRS analyses.