artifact rejection
Preprocessing procedure to identify and remove contaminated data segments caused by non-neural sources such as eye movements, muscle activity, or equipment malfunction.
Full Definition
Artifact rejection is a critical preprocessing step in neurophysiological data analysis that involves identifying and removing data segments contaminated by non-neural sources. Common artifacts include eye blinks and movements, muscle tension, cardiac pulsation, electrical interference, and movement artifacts. Rejection can be performed manually through visual inspection or automatically using statistical algorithms that detect outliers based on amplitude thresholds, frequency characteristics, or independent component analysis. Proper artifact rejection is essential for ensuring data quality and preventing spurious findings in neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies. The balance between removing artifacts and preserving genuine neural data requires careful consideration of rejection criteria.
Usage
Usage note: Essential to specify rejection criteria and percentage of data removed in methodology.
In Context
- "Automatic artifact rejection removed 15% of trials due to excessive muscle contamination." — EEG preprocessing report
- "The artifact rejection criteria included amplitude exceeding ±100 μV and gradient thresholds." — Electrophysiology methods section