Consistent Run Selection for Independent Component Analysis: Application to Fmri Analysis

Independent component analysis (ICA) has found wide application in a variety of areas, and analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data has been a particularly fruitful one. Maximum likelihood provides a natural formuiation for ICA and allows one to take into account multiple statistical properties of the data-forms of diversity. While use of multiple types of diversity allows for additional flexibility, it comes at a cost, leading to high variability in the solution space. In this paper, using simulated as well as fMRI-like data, we provide insight into the trade-offs between estimation accuracy and algorithmic consistency with or without deviations from the assumed model and assumptions such as the statistical independence. Additionally, we propose a new metric, cross inter-symbol interference, to quantify the consistency of an algorithm across different runs, and demonstrate its desirable performance for selecting consistent run compared to other metrics used for the task.