Robust unified Granger causality analysis: a normalized maximum likelihood form

Abstract

Abstract Unified Granger causality analysis (uGCA) alters conventional two-stage Granger causality analysis into a unified code-length guided framework. We have presented several forms of uGCA methods to investigate causal connectivities, and different forms of uGCA have their own characteristics, which capable of approaching the ground truth networks well in their suitable contexts. In this paper, we considered comparing these several forms of uGCA in detail, then recommend a relatively more robust uGCA method among them, uGCA-NML, to reply to more general scenarios. Then, we clarified the distinguished advantages of uGCA-NML in a synthetic 6-node network. Moreover, uGCA-NML presented its good robustness in mental arithmetic experiments, which identified a stable similarity among causal networks under visual/auditory stimulus. Whereas, due to its commendable stability and accuracy, uGCA-NML will be a prior choice in this unified causal investigation paradigm.

Keywords

• Unified Granger causality analysis
• Normalized maximum likelihood
• Inherent redundancy
• Granger causality analysis
• FMRI