[FieldTrip] 'rule of thumb' for defining how many independent components to analyze for EEG?

[Eleanor Harding]

Dear Fieldtrip community,

I intend to run ICA on an EEG dataset with 64 channels (+ 2 eye channels), on epochs which are about 4 seconds long, and I am unsure as to how many independent components I should define (20,65,..?).

My question is, is there a 'rule of thumb' for defining how many independent components to analyze for EEG? In the archives I have found only references to MEG datasets with many channels, for example reducing over 200 channels to 80 components. Looking in the literature today I also wasn't able to interpret an answer.

If anyone has any information, references, or other input I would be much obliged.

Thanks,
Ellie



-- 
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Eleanor Harding 
PhD Student 
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences 
Stephanstraße 1A, 04103 Leipzig, Germany 
Phone: +49 341 9940-2268 
Fax: +49 341 9940 2260 
http://www.cbs.mpg.de/~harding