mne-tools / mne-tools/mne-python

plot_compare_evokeds should have the same defaults for `combine`

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#10,467 10 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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ENH sprint-2023
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Currently the function mne.viz.plot_compare_evokeds creates two different plots depending on the number of selected channels:

  • If one channel is selected (or present in the evoked), it will plot the ERP.
  • If two or more channels are selected (or present), it will plot the GFP.

I think this behaviour is potentially misleading, and I would expect the function to have the same defaults for different channels, i.e. mean of the evokeds. As you can see in #10465 , this created quite a bit of confusion for me (probably mainly due to me being new to ERP analysis and not knowing what GFP meant).

I see this has previously already spiked a bit of discussion (e.g. #3393) and was introduced in #6166.
By now, the gfp=... parameter has been removed in favor of the combine=None parameter, which defaults to a different value depending on the present/chosen channels.

I would suggest either

  • make combine have the same default for all cases
  • make combine an arg, i.e. make users forcefully choose a combination mode

Additionally, the docstring should reflect the importance of the combine parameter.

What are your thoughts on this?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start at mne.viz.plot_compare_evokeds and inspect how the combine default changes with the selected channel count, along with the function docstring. Review the context in #10465, #3393, and #6166; the issue is complete only after the default behavior or required argument is decided and the documentation reflects its importance.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data-visualization
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
28/100

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