Hi Guys,
Thanks for your replies. In my case i think it is appropriate that I do alter the way the images are displayed. The images in SPM are actually coming out as radiological convention (left is right) and neurological convention in analyze (left is left). However thinking about it i know why this is. We are scanning rats and mice which are lying prone on the bed whereas the scanner by default is expecting the subjects to be lying supine on the bed. This means the scanner labels the right side of the rat as the left side of the image. We now know how to change the default expectation of the scanner from supine to prone but after 3 years of imaging studies collected the other way round it would rather confuse things to switch now. I think the most straight forwards thing would be if i could set up spm to display the images the opposite way round by default (so that the rat left = rat left even though this means the image left is the image right). You said this would be done by editing one of the .m files. Which .m file and in what way?

Thanks

Stephen