View source for BRIK/HEAD

{{FormatInfo
|subcat=Scientific Data formats
|extensions={{ext|brik}},{{ext|head}}
}}

== General description ==

'''BRIK''' and '''HEAD''' files are medical imaging (generally, brain imaging) data files generated and used by the [http://afni.nimh.nih.gov/ AFNI] (Analysis of Functional NeuroImaging) analysis package. The files are multi-dimensional raster data, or "voxel" data -- in essence, pixels with a value in three dimensions. The AFNI format also supports time-series data, or multiple values at each voxel over time, per participant, or with different meaning (for example, a beta value and a t-statistic).

The .BRIK portion of the file contains the actual voxel data, while the .HEAD file contains the metadata needed to interpret the data.

== Software ==

The AFNI software suite is open-source, written in C, and available [http://afni.nimh.nih.gov/afni/download/afni/releases/latest here].

== Other considerations ==

Note that (nearly?) all AFNI programs support the much more widely-used .nii file format; converting data to that format may be a good move. A caveat is that the .nii header supports much less information than .head files.