Comparison of Blind Source Separation Algorithms for FMRI Using a New Matlab Toolbox: GIFT

Abstract

We study the performance of five blind source separation (BSS) algorithms when applied to analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. We introduce a Matlab-based toolbox, the group ICA of fMRI toolbox (GIFT), which enables analysis of groups of subjects using BSS algorithms, in particular those based on independent component analysis (ICA). We use the visualization and computational tools included in GIFT to quantitatively analyze the performance of different BSS algorithms for fMRI analysis and discuss the results.