MuTE: a MATLAB toolbox to compare established and novel estimators of the multivariate transfer entropy

PLoS One. 2014 Oct 14;9(10):e109462. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109462. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

A challenge for physiologists and neuroscientists is to map information transfer between components of the systems that they study at different scales, in order to derive important knowledge on structure and function from the analysis of the recorded dynamics. The components of physiological networks often interact in a nonlinear way and through mechanisms which are in general not completely known. It is then safer that the method of choice for analyzing these interactions does not rely on any model or assumption on the nature of the data and their interactions. Transfer entropy has emerged as a powerful tool to quantify directed dynamical interactions. In this paper we compare different approaches to evaluate transfer entropy, some of them already proposed, some novel, and present their implementation in a freeware MATLAB toolbox. Applications to simulated and real data are presented.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / physiopathology
  • Computer Simulation
  • Electroencephalography
  • Entropy
  • Epilepsy / physiopathology
  • Humans
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • ROC Curve
  • Software*

Grants and funding

This work is supported by: the Belgian Science Policy (IUAP VII project CEREBNET P7 11); the University of Gent (Special Research Funds for visiting researchers). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.