fASL Tutorial #2: Downloading and Installing

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Overview

Note

You will need to have Matlab installed to run f-ASL. Most universities can give you a license for free; ask your local IT person for more information.

f-ASL (functional ASL) is an ASL analysis package written by Luis Hernandez-Garcia. The package is available for download from Luis’s github page located here. Click on the Matlab_ASL_Repo repository, and click on the Clone or Download button; select Download ZIP. Once the package has been downloaded, open up a Terminal and navigate to your Downloads directory, and type:

unzip Matlab_ASL_repo-master.zip

This will create a folder called Matlab_ASL_Repo-master, which you can then move to your home directory by typing:

mv Matlab_ASL_repo-master ~

Note

If you need a review of Unix and how to use basic Terminal commands, see the :doc:`Unix tutorial <https://andysbrainbook.readthedocs.io/en/latest/unix/Unix_Intro.html>`__.

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Setting the Path

In order to use f-ASL from anywhere on your computer, you will need to set a path pointing to the f-ASL libraries. If LuisTools is in your Downloads directory, for example, open up Matlab and then type:

addpath ~/Matlab_ASL_repo-master

You will then be able to open up f-ASL by typing fasl02 and pressing Enter.

Note

In order to run fASL from any directory, you will need to type the addpath command above each time you open a new instance of Matlab. An alternative is to open a Matlab window, then click on Set Path and then click on the Add with Subfolders button. Select the Matlab_ASL_repo-master directory, then click Save and Close. Now you will be able to open fASL any time you open up a new Matlab window, without having to type the addpath command first.

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Next Steps

Now that you have f-ASL installed, we will use it to analyze a sample ASL dataset. Click the Next button to learn more about the dataset that we will analyze.