Dear everyone,

We're happy to announce the release of the updated FieldMap 
toolbox version 2.0 for SPM5. To ensure full compatibility 
between the FieldMap toolbox and Realign & Unwarp in SPM5, 
please also update spm_get_image_def.m in the main SPM5 
distribution. The main changes are listed below:

1) The convention used to describe the direction of the 
k-space traversal is now based on the coordinate system used 
by SPM. In this coordinate system, the phase encode direction 
corresponds with the y-direction and is defined as positive 
from the posterior to the anterior of the head. The x-direction 
is defined as positive from left to right and the z-direction 
is defined as positive from foot to head. The polarity of the 
phase-encode blips describes in which direction k-space is 
traversed along the y-axis with respect to the coordinate 
system described here. The change in convention means that if 
previously the polarity of phase-encode blips in the FieldMap 
gui was usually set to be negative, it should now be positive 
and vice versa. This also applies to the default value for 
pm_def.K_SPACE_TRAVERSAL_BLIP_DIR in the pm_defaults.m file which 
should be set to -1 if it was +1 previously and vice versa. 
As before the recommendation is: When you first start using the  
toolbox USE THE GUI TO ENSURE YOUR DISTORTION CORRECTIONS GO IN 
THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

2) In the previous version of FieldMap, there was a bug in 
the application of the Jacobian modulation when using an 
EPI-based field map. This has now been fixed. Thankyou to 
Xu Ning who first alerted us to the presence of this bug.

3) The toolbox now allows the user to select a specified 
defaults file.This means it is possible to have more than one 
default file containing different sets of parameters relating 
to different field map and /or EPI sequences. This is 
particularly useful for sites where more than one sequence is 
routinely used.

4) The toolbox can be run using the new SPM5 User Interface. 
This will allow FieldMap jobs to be saved serving as a log about 
how the data was processed. It will also facilitate scripting 
and batching jobs.

5) The toolbox now reads and writes files in nifti format 
(as does SPM5).

6) The toolbox now save a vdm5_* file which will also be expected 
by Realign & unwarp. If doing Unwarp with multiple sessions, but
a single vdm5_* file, it will be necessary to select this file 
for each session. 

7) All versions of FieldMap and Unwarp are only designed to work 
with images collected with the phase-encode direction in y.

We have tried our best to thoroughly test and validate 
the toolbox but please report any problems to us. All the 
usual waivers and disclaimers apply.

Good luck 
Chloe & Jesper