The purpose of the intent_* fields is to help interpret the values stored in the dataset. Some non-statistical values for intent_code and conventions are provided for storing other complex data types.
The intent_name field provides space for a 15 character (plus 0 byte) 'name' string for the type of data stored. Examples:
- intent_code = NIFTI_INTENT_ESTIMATE; intent_name = "T1"; could be used to signify that the voxel values are estimates of the NMR parameter T1.
- intent_code = NIFTI_INTENT_TTEST; intent_name = "House"; could be used to signify that the voxel values are t-statistics for the significance of 'activation' response to a House stimulus.
- intent_code = NIFTI_INTENT_DISPVECT; intent_name = "ToMNI152"; could be used to signify that the voxel values are a displacement vector that transforms each voxel (x,y,z) location to the corresponding location in the MNI152 standard brain.
- intent_code = NIFTI_INTENT_SYMMATRIX; intent_name = "DTI"; could be used to signify that the voxel values comprise a diffusion tensor image.
Information from nifti1.h by RW Cox, NIH