I hope this way it reaches all.

Dear Cheryl, 

thank you, please use my new e-mail-Address, I mean change it in your files,
the new one is easy: [log in to unmask] and, please, circulate this answer of
mine in the community, thank you.

I am now going to answer your questions, I think your endeavor is excellent
and important.

1. Is there a community need for these shared datasets?  Y E S ! 

2. Is it helpful to have basic sensory simulations (visual, auditory,
somatosensory), in addition to more complex simulations? These datasets
represent easier cases to analyze in most situations. Y E S it's helpful.

3. Is it helpful to construct realistic simulated data reflecting functional
connectivity which would include unique single-trials and continuous data? Y
E S , it is helpful, I think.

3. Is it useful to have overall analyses conducted on the outcome of
different algorithms so we can directly compare performance across
algorithms? Y E S !

4. Is it useful to construct a large empirical cognitive dataset (n=25),
emphasizing functional connectivity, that includes DTI, neuropsychological
test measures, task performance measures, to share with the community (for
exploratory connectivity analyses)? Y E S if we in the community are all
good friends respecting eachother. Somehow the stealing of ideas and data
has to be avoided.

5. Should we develop an external committee to help set guidelines for the
creation of datasets and maintenance of the web-portal? Y E S would be a
good idea.

6. If a simulation for your project was available, would you use it rather
than generating your own simulations (assuming that the data format was
compatible with your software? Theoretically yes, in practice I and my
co-workers would perhaps have the ambition to make it better if there are
improvement possibilities.

7. What other needs do you envision for the success of a community
web-portal containing simulated and empirical datasets? Again the
originality and 'copy rights' of the data have to be guaranteed.

I remember that Per Roland made a similar thing for fMRI  with an EU grant,
we alo participated but somehow this  seeped away ...

Kindest regards

Yours Lüder


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Discussion list for international MEG community
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] Im Auftrag von Cheryl J Aine
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 27. Oktober 2011 00:55
An: [log in to unmask]
Betreff: [megcommunity] We need your help!

Dear Biomag Community,

We need your help!  We have established a web-portal (it has been updated)
for distributing realistic simulated data, as well as empirical data, for
the sole purpose of providing the MEG community with common datasets with
which groups can test their MEG algorithms (http://cobre.mrn.org/megsim/).
Many of you have helped us before (2007) by sending us letters/email
indicating a need for such an MEG portal which we sent along with our
R21 NIH grant application (a small exploratory grant good for 2 years). We
eventually received the grant and now we wish to turn it into a larger grant
funded by NIH, expanding our simulations to include EEG. The reviewer
comments from the first submission centered on the question of whether
anyone would use the simulated datasets generated. A secondary concern was
that our simulated data sets were out of date. I am hoping that we can open
communication channels between our MEG/EEG community members and discuss
what is needed most by the community so that we can deliver something that
most members would be happy to use.

I am enclosing our “in press” article outlining the web-portal which shows
examples of many of the datasets and first pass results for immediate
benchmark comparisons. This article was intended to mark the official
opening of our web portal.

Based on the reviewers concerns, we have some specific brief questions we
hope you will take a couple of minutes to answer:
1. Is there a community need for these shared datasets?
2. Is it helpful to have basic sensory simulations (visual, auditory,
somatosensory), in addition to more complex simulations? These datasets
represent easier cases to analyze in most situations.
3. Is it helpful to construct realistic simulated data reflecting functional
connectivity which would include unique single-trials and continuous data?
3. Is it useful to have overall analyses conducted on the outcome of
different algorithms so we can directly compare performance across
algorithms?
4. Is it useful to construct a large empirical cognitive dataset (n=25),
emphasizing functional connectivity, that includes DTI, neuropsychological
test measures, task performance measures, to share with the community (for
exploratory connectivity analyses)?
5. Should we develop an external committee to help set guidelines for the
creation of datasets and maintenance of the web-portal?
6. If a simulation for your project was available, would you use it rather
than generating your own simulations (assuming that the data format was
compatible with your software?
7. What other needs do you envision for the success of a community
web-portal containing simulated and empirical datasets?

We are planning on submitting a revised grant application around Dec 1 2011.
If you would like to help us please send a letter to me at the address below
(or attach a letter to email—one reviewer didn’t appreciate 1- or 2- line
sentences sent via email). I am sending this to the Biomag list. If there
are others who should receive it, but are not on the Biomag list, please
forward this message to them.  Thank you!

Sincerely,

Cheryl J. Aine, PhD
Professor, Department of Radiology
MSC10 5530
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
505 272-5557