CTAGGER: Semi-structured community tagging for annotation and data-mining in event-rich contexts

Analysis of dynamic brain imaging data from EEG, MEG or fMRI requires a common temporal context to enable meta-analysis and data mining across experiments. However, there is no standardized method of annotating events, even from laboratory experiments in controlled settings, and the event-rich environments of real-world brain imaging present a still greater annotation challenge. We have developed a MATLAB toolbox called CTAGGER to enable a user-friendly, semi-structured and expandable strategy for event annotation in dynamic brain imaging and other time-series. To facilitate common labeling and comparison across data collections and laboratories, an individual´s annotation can be collected in a common community database to encourage annotation reuse. The tools allow the creation of multiple event overlays to facilitate the reuse and combination of brain imaging data for multiple analyses.