Single dipole localization: some numerical aspects and a practical rejection criterion for the fitted parameters

There have been a number of attempts in the last years to localize the generators of brain electromagnetic activity, considering one current dipole as the source model. Single Dipole Localization (SDL) requires the selection of an optimization algorithm (OA). General aspects related with the selection, implementation and evaluation of some of the OA employed for SDL are discussed in this paper. Specifically the performance of two algorithms, those of Hooke-Jeeves and Levenberg-Marquardt, are tested by simulations. Suggestions for including restrictions to the dipole position and comments about some commonly used measures of the goodness of fit are given. Examples of erroneous implementations of these algorithms are also illustrated. A simple graphic rejection criterion, which can be easily used by inexperienced researchers, is introduced and tested in noisy and noise free simulations.