System and method for assessing electrical activity using an iterative sparse technique

A method for three-dimensional source imaging of electrical activity in a biological system, the method comprising:

• receiving signals of electrical activity recorded, using a sensor array, at multiple locations in the biological system;
• generating an initial estimate of a spatial extent of an underlying source based on the signals of electrical activity;
• imposing edge sparsity on the initial estimate to eliminate background activity and create clear edges between an active source and background activity;
• iteratively reweighting the edge sparsity of the initial estimate and launching a series of subsequent optimization problems to converge to a more accurate estimation of a spatial extent of the underlying source,
• wherein the locations having smaller source amplitude are penalized based on solutions obtained in previous iterations;
• generating one or more images depicting the spatial extent of the underlying source in the biological system using the iteratively reweighted edge sparsity;
• and
• estimating one or more time courses of electrical activity depicting temporal dynamics of the underlying source in the biological system using the iteratively reweighted edge sparsity.

A non-volatile storage medium having instructions for three-dimensional source imaging of electrical activity in a biological system, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, are configured to:

• receive signals of electrical activity recorded, using a sensor array, at multiple locations in the biological system;
• generate an initial estimate of an underlying source;
• impose edge sparsity on the initial estimate to eliminate background activity and create clear edges between an active source and background activity;
• iteratively reweight the edge sparsity of the initial estimate and launch a series of subsequent optimization problems to converge to a more accurate estimation of a spatial extent of the underlying source,
• wherein the locations having smaller source amplitude are penalized based on solutions obtained in previous iterations;
• generate one or more images depicting the spatial extent of the underlying source in the biological system using the iteratively reweighted edge sparsity;
• and
• generate one or more time courses of electrical activity depicting temporal dynamics of the underlying source in the biological system using the iteratively reweighted edge sparsity.