How to Test the Quality of Reconstructed Sources in Independent Component Analysis (ICA) of EEG/MEG Data

Abstract

We provide a simple method, based on volume conduction models, to quantify the neurophysiological plausibility of independent components (ICs) reconstructed from EEG/MEG data. We evaluate the method on EEG data recorded from 19 subjects and compare the results with two established procedures for judging the quality of ICs. We argue that our procedure provides a sound empirical basis for the inclusion or exclusion of ICs in the analysis of experimental data.