Back to results

Virginia Tech

Setting location priors using beamforming improves model comparison in MEG-DCM

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Modelling neuronal interactions using a directed network can be used to provide insight into the activity of the brain during experimental tasks. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) allows for the observation of the fast neuronal dynamics necessary to characterize the activity of sources and their interactions. A network representation of these sources and their connections can be formed by mapping them to nodes and their connection strengths to edge weights. Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM) presents a Bayesian framework to estimate the parameters of these networks, as well as the ability to test hypotheses on the structure of the network itself using Bayesian model comparison. DCM uses a neurologically-informed representation of the active neural sources, which leads to an underdetermined system and increased complexity in estimating the network parameters. This work shows that inform- ing the MEG DCM source location with prior distributions defined using a MEG source localization algorithm improves model selection accuracy. DCM inversion of a group of candidate models shows an enhanced ability to identify a ground-truth network structure when source-localized prior means are used.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Electrical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2014

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Carter, Matthew Edward
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Wyatt, Christopher L.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Baumann, William T.
  • Beex, Aloysius A.

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:3564
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/50418

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Carter, Matthew Edward. Setting location priors using beamforming improves model comparison in MEG-DCM. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/50418