Mj. Fadili et al., On the number of clusters and the fuzziness index for unsupervised FCA application to BOLD fMRI time series, MED IMAGE A, 5(1), 2001, pp. 55-67
The aim of this paper is to present an exploratory data-driven strategy bas
ed on Unsupervised Fuzzy Clustering Analysis (UFCA) and its potential for f
MRI data analysis in the temporal domain. The a priori definition of the nu
mber of clusters is addressed and solved using heuristics. An original vali
dity criterion is proposed taking into account data geometry and the partit
ion Membership Functions (MFs). From our simulations, this criterion is sho
wn to outperform other indices used in the literature. The influence of the
fuzziness index was studied using simulated activation combined with real
life noise data acquired from subjects under a resting state. Receiver Oper
ating Characteristics (ROC) methodology is implemented to assess the perfor
mance of the proposed UFCA with respect to the fuzziness index. An interval
of choice around 2, a value widely used in FCA, is shown to yield the best
performance. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.