BEM-based SMS-LORETA - an advanced method to localize multiple simultaneously active sources in the cerebral cortex

In this paper the method and performance data of ‘Boundary Element Method (BEM)’-based SMS-LORETA (Simultaneous Multiple Sources LORETA) are presented. According to these data the method is capable of locating efficiently multiple simultaneously active neural sources from scalp potential topographies automatically. BEM-based SMS-LORETA is a procedure to fully interpret sLORETA solutions, i.e., with a given scalp potential distribution it gives the number of identifiable sources as well as their strength and orientation. Performance data result from numerous analyses of simulated noise-free and noise-contaminated potential distributions (topographies) that have been obtained by means of BEM-based forward solutions, where one, two or three simultaneously active dipoles were randomly chosen regarding their positions and polarity.