Simulate raw data using subject anatomy#

This example illustrates how to generate source estimates and simulate raw data using subject anatomy with the mne.simulation.SourceSimulator class. Once the raw data is simulated, generated source estimates are reconstructed using dynamic statistical parametric mapping (dSPM) inverse operator.

# Author: Ivana Kojcic <ivana.kojcic@gmail.com>
#         Eric Larson <larson.eric.d@gmail.com>
#         Kostiantyn Maksymenko <kostiantyn.maksymenko@gmail.com>
#         Samuel Deslauriers-Gauthier <sam.deslauriers@gmail.com>

# License: BSD-3-Clause
# Copyright the MNE-Python contributors.

import numpy as np

import mne
from mne.datasets import sample

In this example, raw data will be simulated for the sample subject, so its information needs to be loaded. This step will download the data if it not already on your machine. Subjects directory is also set so it doesn’t need to be given to functions.

data_path = sample.data_path()
subjects_dir = data_path / "subjects"
subject = "sample"
meg_path = data_path / "MEG" / subject

First, we get an info structure from the sample subject.

fname_info = meg_path / "sample_audvis_raw.fif"
info = mne.io.read_info(fname_info)
tstep = 1 / info["sfreq"]

To simulate sources, we also need a source space. It can be obtained from the forward solution of the sample subject.

fwd_fname = meg_path / "sample_audvis-meg-eeg-oct-6-fwd.fif"
fwd = mne.read_forward_solution(fwd_fname)
src = fwd["src"]

To simulate raw data, we need to define when the activity occurs using events matrix and specify the IDs of each event. Noise covariance matrix also needs to be defined. Here, both are loaded from the sample dataset, but they can also be specified by the user.

fname_event = meg_path / "sample_audvis_raw-eve.fif"
fname_cov = meg_path / "sample_audvis-cov.fif"

events = mne.read_events(fname_event)
noise_cov = mne.read_cov(fname_cov)

# Standard sample event IDs. These values will correspond to the third column
# in the events matrix.
event_id = {
    "auditory/left": 1,
    "auditory/right": 2,
    "visual/left": 3,
    "visual/right": 4,
    "smiley": 5,
    "button": 32,
}


# Take only a few events for speed
events = events[:80]

In order to simulate source time courses, labels of desired active regions need to be specified for each of the 4 simulation conditions. Make a dictionary that maps conditions to activation strengths within aparc.a2009s [1] labels. In the aparc.a2009s parcellation:

‘G_temp_sup-G_T_transv’ is the label for primary auditory area
‘S_calcarine’ is the label for primary visual area

In each of the 4 conditions, only the primary area is activated. This means that during the activations of auditory areas, there are no activations in visual areas and vice versa. Moreover, for each condition, contralateral region is more active (here, 2 times more) than the ipsilateral.

activations = {
    "auditory/left": [
        ("G_temp_sup-G_T_transv-lh", 30),  # label, activation (nAm)
        ("G_temp_sup-G_T_transv-rh", 60),
    ],
    "auditory/right": [
        ("G_temp_sup-G_T_transv-lh", 60),
        ("G_temp_sup-G_T_transv-rh", 30),
    ],
    "visual/left": [("S_calcarine-lh", 30), ("S_calcarine-rh", 60)],
    "visual/right": [("S_calcarine-lh", 60), ("S_calcarine-rh", 30)],
}

annot = "aparc.a2009s"

# Load the 4 necessary label names.
label_names = sorted(
    set(
        activation[0]
        for activation_list in activations.values()
        for activation in activation_list
    )
)
region_names = list(activations.keys())

Create simulated source activity#

Generate source time courses for each region. In this example, we want to simulate source activity for a single condition at a time. Therefore, each evoked response will be parametrized by latency and duration.

def data_fun(times, latency, duration):
    """Generate source time courses for evoked responses."""
    f = 15  # oscillating frequency, beta band [Hz]
    sigma = 0.375 * duration
    sinusoid = np.sin(2 * np.pi * f * (times - latency))
    gf = np.exp(
        -((times - latency - rng.uniform(high=sigma / 4.0, size=1)) ** 2)
        / (2 * (sigma**2))
    )
    return 1e-9 * sinusoid * gf

Here, SourceSimulator is used, which allows to specify where (label), what (source_time_series), and when (events) event type will occur.

We will add data for 4 areas, each of which contains 2 labels. Since add_data method accepts 1 label per call, it will be called 2 times per area.

Evoked responses are generated such that the main component peaks at 100ms with a duration of around 30ms, which first appears in the contralateral cortex. This is followed by a response in the ipsilateral cortex with a peak about 15ms after. The amplitude of the activations will be 2 times higher in the contralateral region, as explained before.

When the activity occurs is defined using events. In this case, they are taken from the original raw data. The first column is the sample of the event, the second is not used. The third one is the event id, which is different for each of the 4 areas.

times = np.arange(150, dtype=np.float64) / info["sfreq"]
duration = 0.03
rng = np.random.default_rng(7)
source_simulator = mne.simulation.SourceSimulator(src, tstep=tstep)

for region_id, region_name in enumerate(region_names, 1):
    events_tmp = events[np.where(events[:, 2] == region_id)[0], :]
    for i in range(2):
        label_name = activations[region_name][i][0]
        label_tmp = mne.read_labels_from_annot(
            subject, annot, subjects_dir=subjects_dir, regexp=label_name, verbose=False
        )
        label_tmp = label_tmp[0]
        amplitude_tmp = activations[region_name][i][1]
        if region_name.split("/")[1][0] == label_tmp.hemi[0]:
            latency_tmp = 0.115
        else:
            latency_tmp = 0.1
        wf_tmp = data_fun(times, latency_tmp, duration)
        source_simulator.add_data(label_tmp, amplitude_tmp * wf_tmp, events_tmp)

# To obtain a SourceEstimate object, we need to use `get_stc()` method of
# SourceSimulator class.
stc_data = source_simulator.get_stc()

Simulate raw data#

Project the source time series to sensor space. Three types of noise will be added to the simulated raw data:

multivariate Gaussian noise obtained from the noise covariance from the sample data
blink (EOG) noise
ECG noise

The SourceSimulator can be given directly to the simulate_raw() function.

raw_sim = mne.simulation.simulate_raw(info, source_simulator, forward=fwd)
raw_sim.set_eeg_reference(projection=True)

mne.simulation.add_noise(raw_sim, cov=noise_cov, rng=211)
mne.simulation.add_eog(raw_sim, rng=223)
mne.simulation.add_ecg(raw_sim, rng=227)

# Plot original and simulated raw data.
raw_sim.plot(title="Simulated raw data")

Extract epochs and compute evoked responsses#

epochs = mne.Epochs(
    raw_sim,
    events,
    event_id,
    tmin=-0.2,
    tmax=0.3,
    baseline=(None, 0),
    on_outside="ignore",
)
evoked_aud_left = epochs["auditory/left"].average()
evoked_vis_right = epochs["visual/right"].average()

# Visualize the evoked data
evoked_aud_left.plot(spatial_colors=True)
evoked_vis_right.plot(spatial_colors=True)

Reconstruct simulated source time courses using dSPM inverse operator#

Here, source time courses for auditory and visual areas are reconstructed separately and their difference is shown. This was done merely for better visual representation of source reconstruction. As expected, when high activations appear in primary auditory areas, primary visual areas will have low activations and vice versa.

method, lambda2 = "dSPM", 1.0 / 9.0
inv = mne.minimum_norm.make_inverse_operator(epochs.info, fwd, noise_cov)
stc_aud = mne.minimum_norm.apply_inverse(evoked_aud_left, inv, lambda2, method)
stc_vis = mne.minimum_norm.apply_inverse(evoked_vis_right, inv, lambda2, method)
stc_diff = stc_aud - stc_vis

brain = stc_diff.plot(
    subjects_dir=subjects_dir, initial_time=0.1, hemi="split", views=["lat", "med"]
)

References#

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