ABSTRACT
Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is a computational technique for identifying hidden statistically independent sources from multivariate data. In its basic form, ICA decomposes a 2D data matrix (e.g. time × voxels) into separate components that have distinct characteristics. In FMRI it is used to identify hidden FMRI signals (such as activations). Since the first application of ICA to Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) in 1998, this technique has developed into a powerful tool for data exploration in cognitive and clinical neurosciences. In this contribution to the commemorative issue 20 years of FMRI I will briefly describe the basic principles behind ICA, discuss the probabilistic extension to ICA and touch on what I think are some of the most notorious loose ends. Further, I will describe some of the most powerful 'killer' applications and finally share some thoughts on where I believe the most promising future developments will lie.
Subject(s)
Brain Mapping/methods , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods , Models, Neurological , Models, Theoretical , Principal Component Analysis/methods , Animals , Brain/anatomy & histology , Brain/physiology , Brain Mapping/history , Factor Analysis, Statistical , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/history , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/history , Principal Component Analysis/historyABSTRACT
The Liqian people in north China are well known because of the controversial hypothesis of an ancient Roman mercenary origin. To test this hypothesis, 227 male individuals representing four Chinese populations were analyzed at 12 short tandem repeat (STR) loci and 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). At the haplogroup levels, 77% Liqian Y chromosomes were restricted to East Asia. Principal component (PC) and multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis suggests that the Liqians are closely related to Chinese populations, especially Han Chinese populations, whereas they greatly deviate from Central Asian and Western Eurasian populations. Further phylogenetic and admixture analysis confirmed that the Han Chinese contributed greatly to the Liqian gene pool. The Liqian and the Yugur people, regarded as kindred populations with common origins, present an underlying genetic difference in a median-joining network. Overall, a Roman mercenary origin could not be accepted as true according to paternal genetic variation, and the current Liqian population is more likely to be a subgroup of the Chinese majority Han.
