.. _responsemean:

responsemean
============

Synopsis
--------

Calculate the mean response function from a set of text files

Usage
-----

::

    responsemean inputs output [ options ]

-  *inputs*: The input response functions
-  *output*: The output mean response function

Description
-----------

Example usage: responsemean input_response1.txt input_response2.txt input_response3.txt ... output_average_response.txt

All response function files provided must contain the same number of unique b-values (lines), as well as the same number of coefficients per line.

As long as the number of unique b-values is identical across all input files, the coefficients will be averaged. This is performed on the assumption that the actual acquired b-values are identical. This is however impossible for the responsemean command to determine based on the data provided; it is therefore up to the user to ensure that this requirement is satisfied.

Options
-------

- **-legacy** Use the legacy behaviour of former command 'average_response': average response function coefficients directly, without compensating for global magnitude differences between input files

Additional standard options for Python scripts
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

- **-nocleanup** do not delete intermediate files during script execution, and do not delete scratch directory at script completion.

- **-scratch /path/to/scratch/** manually specify the path in which to generate the scratch directory.

- **-continue <ScratchDir> <LastFile>** continue the script from a previous execution; must provide the scratch directory path, and the name of the last successfully-generated file.

Standard options
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

- **-info** display information messages.

- **-quiet** do not display information messages or progress status. Alternatively, this can be achieved by setting the MRTRIX_QUIET environment variable to a non-empty string.

- **-debug** display debugging messages.

- **-force** force overwrite of output files.

- **-nthreads number** use this number of threads in multi-threaded applications (set to 0 to disable multi-threading).

- **-config key value**  *(multiple uses permitted)* temporarily set the value of an MRtrix config file entry.

- **-help** display this information page and exit.

- **-version** display version information and exit.

References
^^^^^^^^^^

Tournier, J.-D.; Smith, R. E.; Raffelt, D.; Tabbara, R.; Dhollander, T.; Pietsch, M.; Christiaens, D.; Jeurissen, B.; Yeh, C.-H. & Connelly, A. MRtrix3: A fast, flexible and open software framework for medical image processing and visualisation. NeuroImage, 2019, 202, 116137

--------------



**Author:** Robert E. Smith (robert.smith@florey.edu.au) and David Raffelt (david.raffelt@florey.edu.au)

**Copyright:** Copyright (c) 2008-2025 the MRtrix3 contributors.

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

Covered Software is provided under this License on an "as is"
basis, without warranty of any kind, either expressed, implied, or
statutory, including, without limitation, warranties that the
Covered Software is free of defects, merchantable, fit for a
particular purpose or non-infringing.
See the Mozilla Public License v. 2.0 for more details.

For more details, see http://www.mrtrix.org/.

