Comparing principal components analyses of evoked potentials recorded from heterogeneous groups of subjects

Principal components analysis of evoked potentials differing between groups presents an interpretive problem, particularly in psychiatric research. Two sets of principal components and associated factor scores may appear to differ. The issue is to determine the extent to which visually differing principal components and resultant factor scores span the same factor space. Sets of evoked potentials from controls and from schizophrenics were each subjected to principal components analysis, from which factor score coefficients were computed for all subjects. This allowed determination of the extent to which (1) the two sets of basis waves were similar and (2) the factor scores resulting from the set of basis waves derived from principal components analysis of the control subjects' evoked potential data adequately represented those of the schizophrenics and vice-versa. Canonical correlation analyses indicated substantial similarities between the principal component structures (sets of basis waves). Multiple correlational analyses confirmed that the basis waves from either group spanned the other group's factor space. Factor scores from either set of basis waves were highly correlated. These results suggest that principal component structures derived from evoked potentials of a control group may be used in computing evoked potential factor scores of psychiatrically diverse populations even though the average evoked potentials of the groups may differ in several ways.