Visualize source time courses (stcs)

This tutorial focuses on visualization of source estimates.

Surface Source Estimates

First, we get the paths for the evoked data and the source time courses (stcs).

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import mne
from mne.datasets import sample, fetch_hcp_mmp_parcellation
from mne.minimum_norm import apply_inverse, read_inverse_operator
from mne import read_evokeds

data_path = sample.data_path()
meg_path = data_path / "MEG" / "sample"
subjects_dir = data_path / "subjects"

fname_evoked = meg_path / "sample_audvis-ave.fif"
fname_stc = meg_path / "sample_audvis-meg"
fetch_hcp_mmp_parcellation(subjects_dir)

Then, we read the stc from file.

stc = mne.read_source_estimate(fname_stc, subject="sample")

This is a SourceEstimate object.

print(stc)

<SourceEstimate | 7498 vertices, subject : sample, tmin : 0.0 (ms), tmax : 240.0 (ms), tstep : 10.0 (ms), data shape : (7498, 25), ~791 kB>

The SourceEstimate object is in fact a surface source estimate. MNE also supports volume-based source estimates but more on that later.

We can plot the source estimate using the stc.plot just as in other MNE objects. Note that for this visualization to work, you must have PyVista installed on your machine.

initial_time = 0.1
brain = stc.plot(
    subjects_dir=subjects_dir,
    initial_time=initial_time,
    clim=dict(kind="value", lims=[3, 6, 9]),
    smoothing_steps=7,
)

You can also morph it to fsaverage and visualize it using a flatmap.

stc_fs = mne.compute_source_morph(
    stc, "sample", "fsaverage", subjects_dir, smooth=5, verbose="error"
).apply(stc)
brain = stc_fs.plot(
    subjects_dir=subjects_dir,
    initial_time=initial_time,
    clim=dict(kind="value", lims=[3, 6, 9]),
    surface="flat",
    hemi="both",
    size=(1000, 500),
    smoothing_steps=5,
    time_viewer=False,
    add_data_kwargs=dict(colorbar_kwargs=dict(label_font_size=10)),
)

# to help orient us, let's add a parcellation (red=auditory, green=motor,
# blue=visual)
brain.add_annotation("HCPMMP1_combined", borders=2)

# You can save a movie like the one on our documentation website with:
# brain.save_movie(time_dilation=20, tmin=0.05, tmax=0.16,
#                  interpolation='linear', framerate=10)

Once Loop Reflect