# FsAverage Scale

**URL:** https://mne.discourse.group/t/fsaverage-scale/506
**Category:** Mailing List Archive (read-only)
**Tags:** list-archive
**Created:** [November 9, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/fsaverage-scale/506 "2012-11-09T22:57:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/1X/85cc6bd2b69cb698a166dc6d880fb550510d0144.jpeg) [@system](https://mne.discourse.group/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/fsaverage-scale/506/1 "2012-11-09T22:57:09Z")

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Hello all,

I am using the fsaverage brain for subjects for which no structural MRIs are available. During coregistration I noticed that quite a few subjects have a head that is much smaller than the fsaverage head. Is there a possibility to scale the fsaverage brain to fit a subject's head shape better? If this is not implemented, would it be possible to implement it in Python with mne-python/PySurfer? (i.e., which files would have to be modified/created?) Or is this scale difference not a real problem?

Thank you,

Christian

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### Author: ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/1X/85cc6bd2b69cb698a166dc6d880fb550510d0144.jpeg) [@system](https://mne.discourse.group/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/fsaverage-scale/506/2 "2012-11-10T18:03:22Z")

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hi Christian,

sorry but I am not aware of anybody working with MNE using a template brain.

I don't know how this could work, but if you hack something let us know.

Best,  
Alex

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### Author: ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/1X/85cc6bd2b69cb698a166dc6d880fb550510d0144.jpeg) [@system](https://mne.discourse.group/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/fsaverage-scale/506/3 "2012-11-10T18:19:25Z")

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hi Christian,

You can always use SPM or brainstorm for wrapping the fsaverage to subject  
headsize.

[http://neuroimage.usc.edu/brainstorm/Tutorials/TutWarping](http://neuroimage.usc.edu/brainstorm/Tutorials/TutWarping)

Sheraz

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### Author: ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/1X/85cc6bd2b69cb698a166dc6d880fb550510d0144.jpeg) [@system](https://mne.discourse.group/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/fsaverage-scale/506/4 "2012-11-11T14:14:47Z")

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Hi Sheraz,

Thanks for your suggestion! I am not familiar with SPM and brainstorm, would they allow to import bem files, scale them to fit the digitization data in a fiff file, and export them again as a bem? Or would I have to do the whole source estimation in the respective package?

Thanks!

Christian

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/1X/85cc6bd2b69cb698a166dc6d880fb550510d0144.jpeg) [@system](https://mne.discourse.group/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/fsaverage-scale/506/5 "2012-11-11T15:49:16Z")

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They both are Matlab base packages and support import/export of  
surface/volume data, using freesurfer and mne matlab toolboxes you can  
easily exchange data between the packages.

Sheraz

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### Author: ![agramfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7c8e57/32.png) [@agramfort](https://mne.discourse.group/u/agramfort)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2022, 7:58am UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/fsaverage-scale/506/6 "2022-04-01T07:58:15Z")

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hi,

i had to look into this lately and it turns out there now a solution and super simple using the [scale\_mri](https://mne.tools/stable/generated/mne.scale_mri.html) function.

you can simply do something like:

```python
mne.coreg.scale_mri("fsaverage", "fsaverage_small", scale=0.9, subjects_dir=subjects_dir, annot=True, overwrite=True)

```

and this will create a new subject with a head 90% the size of fsaverage.

Alex
