Hello,
I am trying to understand the design philosophy behind the population_template command’s initialization step.
The documentation and common practice indicate that the algorithm starts by creating an initial average from the input group itself, which is then iteratively refined.
What is the fundamental reason for using this intrinsic group-average as the starting point, rather than registering all subjects directly to an external, high-quality FOD template ?
I suspect the reasons may be:
Robustness & Bias Avoidance: To prevent introducing bias from an external template that may not match the specific population (e.g., pediatric, clinical, or specific ethnicity).
Could you clarify the primary rationale and any scenarios where using an external template as the initial target might be preferable or necessary?
Thank you for sharing your insights.