Correction of blink artifacts using independent component analysis and empirical mode decomposition

Blink-related ocular activity is a major source of artifacts in electroencephalogram (EEG) data. Independent component analysis (ICA) is a well-known technique for the correction of such ocular artifacts, but one of the limitations of ICA is that the ICs selected for removal contain not only ocular activity but also some EEG activity. Straightforward removal of these ICs might, therefore, lead to a loss of EEG data. In this article a method is proposed to separate blink-related ocular activity from actual EEG by combining ICA with a novel technique, empirical mode decomposition. This combination of two techniques allows for maximizing the retention of EEG data and the selective removal of the eyeblink artifact. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated with simulated and real data.