% checksync() - estimate quality of the data synchronization between % eye-tracker and EEG by computing the crosscorrelation between the % (horizontal) gaze position signal and the electro-oculogram (or other % lateral frontal EEG channels that receive strong corneoretinal artifacts). % Since both signals reflect the rotation of the eye ball, there should be % virtually no time lag between both signals, that is, the cross % correlation should peak at a lag of zero. This function computes the % crosscorrelation between gaze and EOG, plots it, and stores the results % in the field "EEG.misc.xcorr_EEG_ET" of the EEG structure. % % Usage: % >> EEG = pop_checksync(EEG,eye_x,heog_l,heog_r,plotfig) % % Required inputs: % EEG - [string] EEG struct, also containing synchronized eye % tracking data (see pop_importeyetracker) % gaze_x - [one channel index], % specify channel index of the X-component (horizontal) % gaze position signal of the eye tracker. If you recorded % from both eyes (binocular), you can also enter a *vector* % with two entries (x of left and right eye) % heog_l - [channel index], index of EOG channel on LEFT side of % the head/face. If no proper EOG electrode was placed % near the eye (bad idea!), use a lateral EEG channel that % is as close to the eye as possible % heog_r - [channel index], index of EOG channel on RIGHT side of % the head/face. If no proper EOG electrode was placed % near the eye (bad idea!), use a lateral EEG channel that % is as close to the eye as possible % plotfig - show a plot with result of the crosscorrelation function % % Outputs: % EEG - EEG structure with cross-correlation info added to the % field EEG.misc.xcorr_EEG_ET % % See also: pop_checksync, pop_importeyetracker, synchronize % % % An example call of the function might look like this: % >> EEG = pop_checksync(EEG,65,1,2,1) % % In this example, the horizontal gaze position of the left eye from the % eye tracker is stored in channel 65 of the synchronized EEG/ET dataset. % The signal of the horizontal EOG electrodes, placed on the left and right % canthus of each eye, is stored in channels 1 and 2, respectively. % The last input indicates that EYE-EEG should plot a figure showing the % cross-correlation function between the ET channels and the, in this case, % bipolar-referenced (left minus right EOG electrode) EOG. % If the synchronization is good, the time lag of the maximum (peak) of the % cross-correlation should be near zero. % % IMPORTANT NOTE: To get clean results, you should first remove % bad or missing data from the eye tracking channels, e.g. due to % eye blinks, using method pop_rej_eyecontin(). Otherwise, the cross-corr. % function will be distorted by this missing data. In some cases, it might % also be necessary to remove intervals with very bad EOG recordings, but % in our experience, some bad EOG data is not much of a problem. % % Note that this method was first applied in Dimigen et al., 2011, JEP:GEN. % Please cite this paper when using this method. Thanks! % % Author: od % Copyright (C) 2009-2017 Olaf Dimigen, HU Berlin % olaf.dimigen@hu-berlin.de % This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify % it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by % the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or % (at your option) any later version. % % This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, % but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of % MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the % GNU General Public License for more details. % % You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License % along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software % Foundation, 51 Franklin Street, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA function [EEG] = checksync(EEG, chan_gaze_x, chan_heog_l, chan_heog_r, plotfig) fprintf('\n%s(): Computing cross correlation function between eye tracker and EOG channels...',mfilename); fprintf('\n\nNote: it is usually necessary to first reject intervals with bad or missing ET data (e.g. blinks)'); fprintf('\nbefore computing the cross-correlation function with the EOG. Otherwise the results will be distorted.'); fprintf(sprintf('\nYou can do this by clicking: \"Reject data based on eye tracker\" > \"Reject bad contin. data\"')); MAXLAG = 100; % compute cross-corr. up to max. lag of MAXLAG samples %% warning if data were already epoched if size(EEG.data,3)>1 warning(sprintf('This function was designed to run on continuous (not epoched) data.\nIt may produce unreliable results if the time series are too short!')) end %% get data for cross-correlation gaze_x = mean(EEG.data(chan_gaze_x,:),1); % "mean", because user can also input several channels if chan_heog_l == chan_heog_r fprintf('\n\n%s(): Same channel number was provided for the left and right HEOG electrode!',mfilename); fprintf('\nTherefore, it is assumed that either (1) the HEOG was already recorded in a bipolar montage as one channel (e.g., L vs. R)'); fprintf('\nor (2) that only one EOG electrode was placed near the eyes (e.g. only at left but not at right canthus).'); fprintf('\nCross-correlation function will therefore be based on this one EOG channel.'); heog = EEG.data(chan_heog_l,:); else fprintf('\n%s(): Computing one bipolar EOG channel from both EOG electrodes...',mfilename); % subtract right minus left EOG channels to obtain *positive* correlations with hor. ET heog = EEG.data(chan_heog_r,:)-EEG.data(chan_heog_l,:); end %% compute cross correlation % based on entire recording (may include artifacts & loss of tracking!) [xc,lags] = xcorr(gaze_x,heog,MAXLAG); % get cross-correlation [maxvalue,ix] = max(abs(xc)); % find maximum xc sampleDiff = lags(ix); % find lag with maximum xc %% user feedback if sampleDiff < 0 fprintf('\n\n-- Maximum cross-correlation is observed at lag of %i samples (= %.2f ms):',sampleDiff,sampleDiff*(1000/EEG.srate)); fprintf('\n-- The eye tracker signal leads the EOG signal'); elseif sampleDiff > 0 fprintf('\n\n-- Maximum cross-correlation is observed at lag of %i samples (= %.2f ms):',sampleDiff,sampleDiff*(1000/EEG.srate)); fprintf('\n-- The eye tracker signal lags behind the EOG signal'); else fprintf('\n\n-- Maximum cross-correlation is observed at lag of %i samples (= %.2f ms):',sampleDiff,sampleDiff*(1000/EEG.srate)); fprintf('\n-- Gaze and EOG seem perfectly aligned'); end %% also report correlation coefficient (r) of the two full time series (at lag 0) r = corrcoef(gaze_x,heog); fprintf('\n-- At a lag of zero, the Pearson correlation coefficient between both signals is r = %.2f',r(1,2)); %% write values to "EEG.etc" so they are stored with the dataset fprintf('\n\nThe cross-correlation function is stored in the field \"EEG.etc.xcorr_eyeeeg\".'); EEG.etc.xcorr_eyeeeg = [xc; lags]; % first row: xc-values, second row: lags %% show figure with cross-correlation function if plotfig fprintf('\n%s(): Plotting cross-correlation function... ',mfilename); figure('Name','synccheck: ET/EOG cross-correlation'); %% plot cross-correlations between -MAXLAGS and +MAXLAGS subplot(1,2,1); hold on; title({'Cross-correlation Eye-tracker & EOG';'\fontsize{8}'}); plot(lags,xc,'k.-','markersize',4) % plot xc function % highlight lag zero and lag with maximum absolute cross-correlation ylimits = ylim; %ylimits(2) = ylimits(2)+0.1*ylimits(2); h1 = plot([0 0],[ylimits(1) ylimits(2)],'color',[0.6 0.6 0.6],'linewidth',2.0,'linestyle',':'); % lag zero h2 = plot([lags(ix) lags(ix)],[ylimits(1) xc(ix)],'r','linewidth',1.2); % lag with max xc % xlabel, also explain what pos./neg. lag means l = legend([h1 h2],{'lag zero','max. absolute cross-corr.'},'Location','Best','box','on'); %xlabel({'\fontsize{10}Lag (in samples)',['\fontsize{8}ET leads EOG ' %char(8592) ' 0 ' char(8594) ' ET lags EOG']}); % arrows do not work in R2012 xlabel({'\fontsize{10}Lag (in samples)',['\fontsize{8}ET leads EOG <-- 0 --> ET lags EOG']}); ylabel('Cross-correlation value') ylim(ylimits) axis square, box on %% zoom in: plot cross-correlation between lag -5 and 5 only subplot(1,2,2); hold on; %title(sprintf('Cross-correlation ET and EOG (zoom)'),'fontweight','bold') title({'Cross-correlation Eye-tracker & EOG';'\fontsize{8}(zoom)'}); xlim([-5 5]); plot(lags,xc,'k.-','markersize',6) % plot xc function % highlight lag zero and lag with maximum absolute cross-correlation ylimits = ylim; h3 = plot([0 0], [ylimits(1) ylimits(2)],'color',[0.6 0.6 0.6],'linewidth',2.0,'linestyle',':'); % lag zero h4 = plot([lags(ix) lags(ix)],[ylimits(1) xc(ix)],'r','linewidth',1.2); % lag with max xc % legend %xlabel({'\fontsize{10}Lag (in samples)',['\fontsize{8}ET leads EOG ' char(8592) ' 0 ' char(8594) ' ET lags EOG']}); xlabel({'\fontsize{10}Lag (in samples)',['\fontsize{8}ET leads EOG <-- 0 --> ET lags EOG']}); ylabel('Cross-correlation value') ylim(ylimits) axis square, box on fprintf('Done.\n'); end