Brain source localization based on fast fully adaptive approach

In the electroencephalogram (EEG) or magnetoencephalogram (MEG) context, brain source localization (beamforming) methods often fail when the number of observations is small. This is particularly true when measuring evoked potentials, especially when the number of electrodes is large. Due to the nonstationarity of the EEG/MEG, an adaptive capability is desirable. Previous work has addressed these issues by reducing the adaptive degrees of freedom (DoFs). This paper develops and tests a new multistage adaptive processing for brain source localization that has been previously used for radar statistical signal processing application with uniform linear antenna array. This processing, referred to as the fast fully adaptive (FFA) approach, could significantly reduce the required sample support and computational complexity, while still processing all available DoFs. The performance improvement offered by the FFA approach in comparison to the fully adaptive minimum variance beamforming (MVB) with limited data is demonstrated by bootstrapping simulated data to evaluate the variability of the source location.