Comparative evaluation of existing and new methods for correcting ocular artifacts in electroencephalographic recordings

EEG signals are often contaminated by ocular artifacts (OAs), in particular when they are recorded for a subject that is, in principle, awake, such as in a study of drowsiness. It is generally desirable to detect and/or correct these OAs before interpreting the EEG signals. We have identified 11 existing methods for dealing with OAs. Their study allowed us to create 16 new methods. We performed a comparative performance evaluation of the resulting 27 distinct methods using a common set of data and a common set of metrics. The data was recorded during a driving task of about two hours in a driving simulator. This led to a ranking of all methods, with five emerging clear winners, comprising two existing methods and three new ones. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.