title: Task-based comparison of inverse methods in magnetoencephalography.
abstract: Magnetoencephalography (MEG) provides unique insights into the spatio-temporal dynamics of neural activation in the human brain. Unfortunately, the accuracy with which neural sources can be localized is limited by the highly illposed nature of the inverse problem. A large number of inverse methods have been proposed that deal with this illposedness using a range of different modeling and regularization procedures. Here we describe an objective task-based framework for comparing different inverse methods. Using the free-response receiver operating characteristic (FROC) we compare the performance of matched filters, cortically constrained dipole scanning, and minimum norm imaging methods for the task of detecting focal cortical activation. Our results indicate that the scanning methods outperform matched filters and minimum norm imaging for the case of one and two 2 cm2 patches of cortical activity when the dynamics of the two patches are both strongly and weakly correlated and irrespective of the spacing of the two activated regions.
authors.affiliation: Signal and Image Processing Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089-2564, USA.
authors.forename: Esen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Küçükaltun-Yildirim
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pantazis
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Leahy
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis