""" .. _tut-bad-channels: ===================== Handling bad channels ===================== This tutorial covers manual marking of bad channels and reconstructing bad channels based on good signals at other sensors. As usual we'll start by importing the modules we need, and loading some example data: """ # Authors: The MNE-Python contributors. # License: BSD-3-Clause # Copyright the MNE-Python contributors. # %% import os from copy import deepcopy import numpy as np import mne sample_data_folder = mne.datasets.sample.data_path() sample_data_raw_file = os.path.join( sample_data_folder, "MEG", "sample", "sample_audvis_raw.fif" ) raw = mne.io.read_raw_fif(sample_data_raw_file, verbose=False) # %% # Marking bad channels # ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ # # Sometimes individual channels malfunction and provide data that is too noisy # to be usable. MNE-Python makes it easy to ignore those channels in the # analysis stream without actually deleting the data in those channels. It does # this by # keeping track of the bad channel indices in a list and looking at that list # when doing analysis or plotting tasks. The list of bad channels is stored in # the ``'bads'`` field of the :class:`~mne.Info` object that is attached to # :class:`~mne.io.Raw`, :class:`~mne.Epochs`, and :class:`~mne.Evoked` objects. print(raw.info["bads"]) # %% # Here you can see that the :file:`.fif` file we loaded from disk must have # been keeping track of channels marked as "bad" — which is good news, because # it means any changes we make to the list of bad channels will be preserved if # we save our data at intermediate stages and re-load it later. Since we saw # above that ``EEG 053`` is one of the bad channels, let's look at it alongside # some other EEG channels to see what's bad about it. We can do this using the # standard :meth:`~mne.io.Raw.plot` method, and instead of listing the channel # names one by one (``['EEG 050', 'EEG 051', ...]``) we'll use a `regular # expression`_ to pick all the EEG channels between 050 and 059 with the # :func:`~mne.pick_channels_regexp` function (the ``.`` is a wildcard # character): picks = mne.pick_channels_regexp(raw.ch_names, regexp="EEG 05.") raw.plot(order=picks, n_channels=len(picks)) # %% # We can do the same thing for the bad MEG channel (``MEG 2443``). Since we # know that Neuromag systems (like the one used to record the example data) use # the last digit of the MEG channel number to indicate sensor type, here our # `regular expression`_ will pick all the channels that start with 2 and end # with 3: picks = mne.pick_channels_regexp(raw.ch_names, regexp="MEG 2..3") raw.plot(order=picks, n_channels=len(picks)) # %% # Notice first of all that the channels marked as "bad" are plotted in a light # gray color in a layer behind the other channels, to make it easy to # distinguish them from "good" channels. The plots make it clear that ``EEG # 053`` is not picking up scalp potentials at all, and ``MEG 2443`` looks like # it's got a lot more internal noise than its neighbors — its signal is a few # orders of magnitude greater than the other MEG channels, making it a clear # candidate for exclusion. # # If you want to change which channels are marked as bad, you can edit # ``raw.info['bads']`` directly; it's an ordinary Python :class:`list` so the # usual list methods will work: original_bads = deepcopy(raw.info["bads"]) raw.info["bads"].append("EEG 050") # add a single channel raw.info["bads"].extend(["EEG 051", "EEG 052"]) # add a list of channels bad_chan = raw.info["bads"].pop(-1) # remove the last entry in the list raw.info["bads"] = original_bads # change the whole list at once # %% # .. admonition:: Blocking execution # :class: sidebar hint # # If you want to build an interactive bad-channel-marking step into an # analysis script, be sure to include the parameter ``block=True`` in your # call to ``raw.plot()`` or ``epochs.plot()``. This will pause the script # while the plot is open, giving you time to mark bad channels before # subsequent analysis or plotting steps are executed. This can be # especially helpful if your script loops over multiple subjects. # # You can also interactively toggle whether a channel is marked "bad" in the # plot windows of ``raw.plot()`` or ``epochs.plot()`` by clicking on the # channel name along the vertical axis (in ``raw.plot()`` windows you can also # do this by clicking the channel's trace in the plot area). The ``bads`` field # gets updated immediately each time you toggle a channel, and will retain its # modified state after the plot window is closed. # # The list of bad channels in the :class:`mne.Info` object's ``bads`` field is # automatically taken into account in dozens of functions and methods across # the MNE-Python codebase. This is done consistently with a parameter # ``exclude='bads'`` in the function or method signature. Typically this # ``exclude`` parameter also accepts a list of channel names or indices, so if # you want to *include* the bad channels you can do so by passing # ``exclude=[]`` (or some other list of channels to exclude). For example: # default is exclude='bads': good_eeg = mne.pick_types(raw.info, meg=False, eeg=True) all_eeg = mne.pick_types(raw.info, meg=False, eeg=True, exclude=[]) print(np.setdiff1d(all_eeg, good_eeg)) print(np.array(raw.ch_names)[np.setdiff1d(all_eeg, good_eeg)]) # %% # When to look for bad channels # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ # # You can start looking for bad channels during the experiment session when the # data is being acquired. If you notice any flat or excessively noisy channels, # you can note them in your experiment log or protocol sheet. If your system # computes online averages, these can be a good way to spot bad channels as # well. After the data has been collected, you can do a more thorough check for # bad channels by browsing the raw data using :meth:`mne.io.Raw.plot`, without # any projectors or ICA applied. Finally, you can compute offline averages # (again with projectors, ICA, and EEG referencing disabled) to look for # channels with unusual properties. Here's an example of ERP/F plots where the # bad channels were not properly marked: raw2 = raw.copy() raw2.info["bads"] = [] events = mne.find_events(raw2, stim_channel="STI 014") epochs = mne.Epochs(raw2, events=events)["2"].average().plot() # %% # The bad EEG channel is not so obvious, but the bad gradiometer is easy to # see. # # Remember, marking bad channels should be done as early as possible in the # analysis pipeline. When bad channels are marked in a :class:`~mne.io.Raw` # object, the markings will be automatically transferred through the chain of # derived object types: including :class:`~mne.Epochs` and :class:`~mne.Evoked` # objects, but also :class:`noise covariance ` objects, # :class:`forward solution computations `, :class:`inverse # operators `, etc. If you don't notice the # badness until later stages of your analysis pipeline, you'll probably need to # go back and re-run the pipeline, so it's a good investment of time to # carefully explore the data for bad channels early on. # # # Why mark bad channels at all? # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ # # Many analysis computations can be strongly affected by the presence of bad # channels. For example, a malfunctioning channel with completely flat signal # will have zero channel variance, which will cause noise estimates to be # unrealistically low. This low noise estimate will lead to a strong channel # weight in the estimate of cortical current, and because the channel is flat, # the magnitude of cortical current estimates will shrink dramatically. # # Conversely, very noisy channels can also cause problems. For example, they # can lead to too many epochs being discarded based on signal amplitude # rejection thresholds, which in turn can lead to less robust estimation of the # noise covariance across sensors. Noisy channels can also interfere with # :term:`SSP` computations, because the projectors will be # spatially biased in the direction of the noisy channel, which can cause # adjacent good channels to be suppressed. ICA is corrupted by noisy channels # for similar reasons. On the other hand, when performing machine learning # analyses, bad channels may have limited, if any impact (i.e., bad channels # will be uninformative and therefore ignored / deweighted by the algorithm). # # # Interpolating bad channels # ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ # # In some cases simply excluding bad channels is sufficient (for example, if # you plan only to analyze a specific sensor ROI, and the bad channel is # outside that ROI). However, in cross-subject analyses it is often helpful to # maintain the same data dimensionality for all subjects, and there is no # guarantee that the same channels will be bad for all subjects. It is possible # in such cases to remove each channel that is bad for even a single subject, # but that can lead to a dramatic drop in data rank (and ends up discarding a # fair amount of clean data in the process). In such cases it is desirable to # reconstruct bad channels by interpolating its signal based on the signals of # the good sensors around them. # # # How interpolation works # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ # # Interpolation of EEG channels in MNE-Python is done using the spherical # spline method :footcite:`PerrinEtAl1989`, which projects the sensor # locations onto a unit sphere # and interpolates the signal at the bad sensor locations based on the signals # at the good locations. Mathematical details are presented in # :ref:`channel-interpolation`. Interpolation of MEG channels uses the field # mapping algorithms used in computing the :ref:`forward solution # `. # # # Interpolation in MNE-Python # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ # # Interpolating bad channels in :class:`~mne.io.Raw` objects is done with the # :meth:`~mne.io.Raw.interpolate_bads` method, which automatically applies the # correct method (spherical splines or field interpolation) to EEG and MEG # channels, respectively (there is a corresponding method # :meth:`mne.Epochs.interpolate_bads` that works for :class:`~mne.Epochs` # objects). To illustrate how it works, we'll start by cropping the raw object # to just three seconds for easier plotting: raw.crop(tmin=0, tmax=3).load_data() # %% # By default, :meth:`~mne.io.Raw.interpolate_bads` will clear out # ``raw.info['bads']`` after interpolation, so that the interpolated channels # are no longer excluded from subsequent computations. Here, for illustration # purposes, we'll prevent that by specifying ``reset_bads=False`` so that when # we plot the data before and after interpolation, the affected channels will # still plot in red: eeg_data = raw.copy().pick(picks="eeg") eeg_data_interp = eeg_data.copy().interpolate_bads(reset_bads=False) for title, data in zip(["orig.", "interp."], [eeg_data, eeg_data_interp]): with mne.viz.use_browser_backend("matplotlib"): fig = data.plot(butterfly=True, color="#00000022", bad_color="r") fig.subplots_adjust(top=0.9) fig.suptitle(title, size="xx-large", weight="bold") # %% # Note that the method :meth:`~mne.io.Raw.pick` default # arguments includes ``exclude=()`` which ensures that bad # channels are not # automatically dropped from the selection. Here is the corresponding example # with the interpolated gradiometer channel; since there are more channels # we'll use a more transparent gray color this time: grad_data = raw.copy().pick(picks="grad") grad_data_interp = grad_data.copy().interpolate_bads(reset_bads=False) for data in (grad_data, grad_data_interp): data.plot(butterfly=True, color="#00000009", bad_color="r") # %% # Summary # ^^^^^^^ # # Bad channel exclusion or interpolation is an important step in EEG/MEG # preprocessing. MNE-Python provides tools for marking and interpolating bad # channels; the list of which channels are marked as "bad" is propagated # automatically through later stages of processing. For an even more automated # approach to bad channel detection and interpolation, consider using the # `autoreject package`_, which interfaces well with MNE-Python-based pipelines. # # # References # ^^^^^^^^^^ # # .. footbibliography:: # # # .. LINKS # # .. _`regular expression`: https://www.regular-expressions.info/ # .. _`autoreject package`: http://autoreject.github.io/