Define target events based on time lag, plot evoked response

This script shows how to define higher order events based on time lag between reference and target events. For illustration, we will put face stimuli presented into two classes, that is 1) followed by an early button press (within 590 milliseconds) and followed by a late button press (later than 590 milliseconds). Finally, we will visualize the evoked responses to both ‘quickly-processed’ and ‘slowly-processed’ face stimuli.

# Authors: Denis Engemann <denis.engemann@gmail.com>
#
# License: BSD-3-Clause
# Copyright the MNE-Python contributors.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import mne
from mne import io
from mne.datasets import sample
from mne.event import define_target_events

print(__doc__)

data_path = sample.data_path()

Set parameters

meg_path = data_path / "MEG" / "sample"
raw_fname = meg_path / "sample_audvis_filt-0-40_raw.fif"
event_fname = meg_path / "sample_audvis_filt-0-40_raw-eve.fif"

#   Setup for reading the raw data
raw = io.read_raw_fif(raw_fname)
events = mne.read_events(event_fname)

#   Set up pick list: EEG + STI 014 - bad channels (modify to your needs)
include = []  # or stim channels ['STI 014']
raw.info["bads"] += ["EEG 053"]  # bads

# pick MEG channels
picks = mne.pick_types(
    raw.info,
    meg="mag",
    eeg=False,
    stim=False,
    eog=True,
    include=include,
    exclude="bads",
)

Find stimulus event followed by quick button presses

reference_id = 5  # presentation of a smiley face
target_id = 32  # button press
sfreq = raw.info["sfreq"]  # sampling rate
tmin = 0.1  # trials leading to very early responses will be rejected
tmax = 0.59  # ignore face stimuli followed by button press later than 590 ms
new_id = 42  # the new event id for a hit. If None, reference_id is used.
fill_na = 99  # the fill value for misses

events_, lag = define_target_events(
    events, reference_id, target_id, sfreq, tmin, tmax, new_id, fill_na
)

print(events_)  # The 99 indicates missing or too late button presses

# besides the events also the lag between target and reference is returned
# this could e.g. be used as parametric regressor in subsequent analyses.

print(lag[lag != fill_na])  # lag in milliseconds

# #############################################################################
# Construct epochs

tmin_ = -0.2
tmax_ = 0.4
event_id = dict(early=new_id, late=fill_na)

epochs = mne.Epochs(
    raw,
    events_,
    event_id,
    tmin_,
    tmax_,
    picks=picks,
    baseline=(None, 0),
    reject=dict(mag=4e-12),
)

# average epochs and get an Evoked dataset.

early, late = (epochs[k].average() for k in event_id)

View evoked response

times = 1e3 * epochs.times  # time in milliseconds
title = "Evoked response followed by {} button press"

fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 1)
early.plot(axes=axes[0], time_unit="s")
axes[0].set(title=title.format("late"), ylabel="Evoked field (fT)")
late.plot(axes=axes[1], time_unit="s")
axes[1].set(title=title.format("early"), ylabel="Evoked field (fT)")
plt.show()

Estimated memory usage: 0 MB