[FieldTrip] Different way of calculating the covariance for LCM

Yuval Harpaz yuvharpaz at gmail.com
Thu Mar 24 10:41:02 CET 2011


Dear Michael, Jean-Michel and FieldTrip users.
To my experience and understanding it does matter if you first asses the
covariance and then average or the other way around.
First, as far as my understanding goes, if we have some brain activity such
as alpha, which is not phase locked to the event then in the covariance will
not 'catch' too much covariability there after averaging, compared to
unaveraged data where it should. if the process of calculating covariance
and averaging id linear then I must be wrong here.
anyway, beamforming on averaged and unaveraged base covariance matrices give
different results in fieldtrip. this is because the covariance matrices are
not the same with or without averaging.

I ran the following test to check it all. I took the same structure as in
the example above, and I tested the covariance matrix after
1. running it with cfg.keeptrials='yes'; then I averaged  (across trials)
the 3d matrix to get 2d matrix.
2. running it without keeping trials; it gives a 2d covariance matrix.
3. averaging the data with this command: mD1st=ft_timelockanalysis([],D1st).
no filters baseline correction or anything.
then I ran timelockanalysis again to compute the covariance (no keeptrials
of course).

the result is that 1. and 2. gave the same result but not 3.

It seems to me that the process is not linear, at least in fieldtrip, and
that one doesn't need to specify keeptrials for unaveraged data because it
calculates the covariance for every trial and then averages the cov
matrices.

If I am wrong here I will appreciate further help with this issue.

thanks
yuval


On 23 March 2011 21:27, Michael Wibral <michael.wibral at web.de> wrote:

>
> Dear Fieldtrip users interested in covariance computation,
> dear Yuval,
>
> I would like to my opinion on covariance computation up for discussion
> here.
>
> Covariance is a (bi-)linear measure (like an inner (scalar) product) and
> should in principle be commutative mathematically with other linear
> procedures as long as you respect the distributative law from elementary
> math. Hence,
>
> (1) averaging single trial covariances or computing the covariance of
> concatenated trials should give the same result if a am not mistaken. In
> these two approaches samples from your two time course are in the end
> multiplied with each other one by one. Whichever route of these two you take
> does not matter at all.
> This holds as long as you treat baseline correction and filtering (!)
> exactly the same way in both cases - otherwise you'll additionally get the
> baseline covariance over trials as a term in the covariance matrix or
> filtering related differences. This latter point maybe important if you post
> hoc decide on a band width to confine your beamformer analysis to and do not
> go back to the raw data for the band pass filtering.
>
> (2) In contrast, when you compute covariance from a precomputed trial
> average then every sample at time t in one trial on channel A will in the
> course of the calculations be implicitely multiplied with samples at time t
> at EVERY other trial on channel B. So this covariances focuses on covariance
> structures that are consistent irrespective of the correct pairings of
> trials.
>
> It's a little bit like first computing the power spectrum and averaging to
> get total activity (induced+evoked) - this would correspond to procedure (1)
> , or first averaging and then computing spectral power in order to get the
> power of evoked activity alone - this would correspond to procedure (2).
>
> This said, when you're interested in the sources of all task related
> oscillatory activity - not only the activity phase locked to a stimulus you
> should pick option (1).
>
>
> Please let me know If I overlooked something important.
> Michael
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------
> Von: "Jean-Michel Badier" <jean-michel.badier at univmed.fr>
> Gesendet: Mar 23, 2011 9:42:53 AM
> An: "Email discussion list for the FieldTrip project" <
> fieldtrip at donders.ru.nl>
> Betreff: Re: [FieldTrip] Different way of calculating the covariance for
> LCM
>
>
> Thanks Yuval,
>
>
>  Le 22/03/11 10:55, Yuval Harpaz a écrit :
>
> So just run the commands on an unaveraged dataset.
>
>
>
> Yes but that would be correct if there was only one trial in the     data
> set (see the message from Luisa).
>
>
>
> Another option to consider is the one used by Dr.         Robinson when
> performing SAMerf (we have his tool [here], works         for our 4D
> machine).
>
>
>  Thanks for it I will test it.
>
>
> The idea is to calculate the covariance on all trials, calculate
> weights by this covariance (keep filter in LCMV) and then apply
> these weights on the averaged data. I found it useful because         the
> covariance is better for longer datasets, and the averaging         in the
> end increases the signal to noise ratio. I do not know         exactly how
> to do it in fieldtrip.
>
>
> On 22 March 2011 10:43, Jean-Michel           Badier <[
> jean-michel.badier at univmed.fr]> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Yuval,
>
>  I have to admit that I did not look at the matlab               routines.
>  In item 2 I suppose that the covariance is calculated for
> each trial then averaged. In item 3 I would like to               calculate
> the covariance from all the signal (the trials               being
> concatenated).
>
>  Jean-Michel
>
>  Le 22/03/11 05:47, Yuval Harpaz a écrit :
>
>
>
> Dear Jean Michel
> As far as I know you can do it on an averaged                         data
> structure (item 1) or do the same with the                         data
> structure before averaging (3). I did not                         understand
> what you meant by 2.
>
> Yuval
>
>
> On 21 March 2011 22:58,                           Jean-Michel Badier <[
> jean-michel.badier at univmed.fr]> wrote:
>
>
> Dear                               fieldtrip users,
>
>  There are different ways of estimating the
> covariance for LCMV calculation.
>  If I am correct:
>
>  1. As suggested in one of the tutorial one
> can apply the calculation of the                               covariance
> directly on the average data                               (for the
> different periods of interest                               that are at
> least a base line and the                               period of interest).
>
>  2. Estimate the covariance from the                               average
> of the covariance rather than the                               covariance
> of the average using                               cfg.keeptrials = "yes"
>
>  3. Estimate the covariance from the whole
> trials concatenated together.
>  Is there an easy way to do that in                               fieldtrip
> (beside create a new data set of                               one trial
> constituted of all the trials)?
>
>  Thanks
>
>  Jean-Michel
>
>
> --  Jean-Michel                                    Badier PhD
>  Laboratoire de
> MagnétoEncéphaloGraphie INSERM U751. Aix
>     Marseille Université 33 (0)4 91 38 55 62  [
> jean-michel.badier at univmed.fr]
>  Service de                                               Neurophysiologie
> Clinique. CHU                                         Timone 264 Rue
>                                 Saint-Pierre, 13005
>                 Marseille-France
>
>
>
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  fieldtrip mailing list
> [fieldtrip at donders.ru.nl]
> [http://mailman.science.ru.nl/mailman/listinfo/fieldtrip]
>
>
>
>
>
>  --
>
> Y.Harpaz
>
>  a link to the BIU MEG lab:
> [http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~goldsa/index.html]
>
>
>  " Why, Dan," ask the people in                               Artificial
> Intelligence, "do you waste                               your time
> conferring with those                               neuroscientists? They
> wave their hands                               about information  processing
> and worry                               about where it happens, and
>                       which neurotransmitters are  involved, and
>                   all those boring facts, but they haven't a
>               clue about the computational requirements
>           of higher cognitive functions."  "Why,"
>     ask the neuroscientists, "do you waste
> your time on the fantasies of Artificial
> Intelligence? They just invent                               whatever
> machinery they want, and say                               unpardonably
> ignorant things about the                               brain." The
>  cognitive psychologists,                               meanwhile, are
> accused of concocting                               models with neither
> biological                               plausibility nor proven
> computational                               powers; the anthropologists
> wouldn't know                               a model if they saw one, and the
>                               philosophers, as we all know, just take in
>                           each other's laundry, warning about
>                 confusions they themselves have created,
>           in an arena bereft of both data and
> empirically testable theories. With                               so many
> idiots working on the problem, no                               wonder
> consciousness is still a mystery. Philosopher Daniel Dennet, consciousness
>                               explained, pp. 225
>
>
>
>
>  _______________________________________________ fieldtrip mailing list [
> fieldtrip at donders.ru.nl] [
> http://mailman.science.ru.nl/mailman/listinfo/fieldtrip]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  fieldtrip mailing list
> [fieldtrip at donders.ru.nl]
> [http://mailman.science.ru.nl/mailman/listinfo/fieldtrip]
>
>
>
>
>
>  --
>
> Y.Harpaz
>
>  a link to the BIU MEG lab:
> [http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~goldsa/index.html]
>
>
>  " Why, Dan," ask the people in Artificial               Intelligence, "do
> you waste your time conferring with               those neuroscientists?
> They wave their hands about               information  processing and worry
> about where it happens,               and which neurotransmitters are
>  involved, and all those               boring facts, but they haven't a clue
> about the               computational requirements of higher cognitive
> functions."                "Why," ask the neuroscientists, "do you waste
> your               time on the fantasies of Artificial Intelligence? They
>             just invent whatever machinery they want, and say
> unpardonably ignorant things about the brain." The                cognitive
> psychologists, meanwhile, are accused               of concocting models
> with neither biological plausibility               nor proven computational
> powers; the anthropologists               wouldn't know a model if they saw
> one, and the               philosophers, as we all know, just take in each
>             other's laundry, warning about confusions they themselves
>         have created, in an arena bereft of both data and
> empirically testable theories. With so many idiots working               on
> the problem, no wonder consciousness is still a               mystery.
> Philosopher Daniel Dennet, consciousness                 explained, pp. 225
>
>
>
>  _______________________________________________ fieldtrip mailing list [
> fieldtrip at donders.ru.nl] [
> http://mailman.science.ru.nl/mailman/listinfo/fieldtrip]
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> <!--
>                @page { size: 21cm 29.7cm; margin: 2cm }
>                P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm }
> -->
> Jean-Michel Badier
>
> Laboratoire               de MagnétoEncéphaloGraphie
> INSERM               U751. Aix Marseille Université
> 33               (0)4 91 38 55 62
> [jean-michel.badier at univmed.fr]
>
> Service                     de Neurophysiologie Clinique. CHU
> Timone
> 264               Rue Saint-Pierre, 13005 Marseille-France
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> fieldtrip mailing list
> fieldtrip at donders.ru.nl
> http://mailman.science.ru.nl/mailman/listinfo/fieldtrip
>



-- 
Y.Harpaz

a link to the BIU MEG lab:
http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~goldsa/index.html

 " Why, Dan," ask the people in Artificial Intelligence, "do you waste your
time conferring with those neuroscientists? They wave their hands about
information  processing and worry about where it happens, and
which neurotransmitters are  involved, and all those boring facts, but
they haven't a clue about the computational requirements of higher
cognitive functions."  "Why," ask the neuroscientists, "do you waste your
time on the fantasies of Artificial Intelligence? They just invent
whatever machinery they want, and say unpardonably ignorant things about the
brain." The  cognitive psychologists, meanwhile, are accused of concocting
models with neither biological plausibility nor proven computational powers;
the anthropologists wouldn't know a model if they saw one, and the
philosophers, as we all know, just take in each other's laundry, warning
about confusions they themselves have created, in an arena bereft of both
data and empirically testable theories. With so many idiots working on the
problem, no wonder consciousness is still a mystery.* Philosopher Daniel
Dennet, consciousness explained, pp. 225*
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