Localization of Distributed EEG Sources in the Context of Epilepsy: A Simulation Study

International audienceObjective: Surface EEG recordings are routinely performed for the diagnosis and management of epilepsy. More particularly, they can help to delineate the brain regions involved in interictal epileptic activity. This is achieved by applying distributed source localization algorithms to the EEG data. Over the last two decades, a multitude of different methods have been proposed. The objective of this paper consists in comparing the performance of eight representative algorithms taking into account recently developed methods. Methods: The performance comparison is based on realistic computer simulations in the context of epileptic source localization. Main findings: All tested algorithms generally permit to identify the source positions, but only some algorithms (STWV-DA, 4-ExSo-MUSIC, SVB-SCCD, cLORETA) also give an indication of the spatial extent of the sources. Localizing deep and mesial sources remains a challenging problem