diff --git a/others/TIPS_and_FAQ.md b/others/TIPS_and_FAQ.md index c5eeebc..e6b158b 100644 --- a/others/TIPS_and_FAQ.md +++ b/others/TIPS_and_FAQ.md @@ -462,11 +462,33 @@ For multiple-epoch data, the scalp map obtained for the different epochs is the same for a particular component. Is this normal or is there some mistake that's being done in the analysis? **Answer:** Because the ICA algorithm is applied in the electrode space -domain, the same scalp maps are returned for all epochs. However the +domain, the same scalp maps are returned for all epochs. However, the time course of one ICA component is different for each epoch (if its activation value is 0 at a given time, it means that this component is not expressed in the data at that particular time). +### ICA activity warning + +If you re-reference the data after running ICA, or if you remove channels, you might see the warning message: + +``` +ICA activity do not match ICA weights, see ... +``` +As a rule of thumb, never perform a lossy re-referencing or channel +removal after running ICA. Instead, remove the channel or re-reference the data, then run ICA again. + +When the data is referenced or if channels are removed, ICA scalp topographies are also referenced, and ICA activity remains unchanged. +However, the ICA assumptions are broken. In other words, we no longer have ICA_activations = ICA_weights * EEG_data. +Nevertheless, we believe this type of broken representation is the closest to the one available before re-referencing or removing +channel(s). The alternative, which consists of recomputing activities, is not ideal because it is no longer an ICA decomposition. +Importantly, if you save and reload the data, ICA activations are not saved by default, so EEGLAB will recompute them using +ICA weights and data. This is no longer a standard ICA decomposition. If is important for you to retain the ICA activities, we +advise that you save the data from the command line using + +``` +save('-mat', 'EEG_dataset_with_ica.set', '-struct', 'EEG'); +``` + Time Frequency --------------