Phase estimation with autoregressive padding (PEAP): addressing inaccuracies and biases in EEG analysis

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kirchhoff, Miriam, Rösch, Johanna, Ermolova, Maria, Ahola, Oskari, Harders, Sarah, Hougland, Juliana, Ziemann, Ulf
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Kirchhoff, Miriam
Rösch, Johanna
Ermolova, Maria
Ahola, Oskari
Harders, Sarah
Hougland, Juliana
Ziemann, Ulf
author_facet Kirchhoff, Miriam
Rösch, Johanna
Ermolova, Maria
Ahola, Oskari
Harders, Sarah
Hougland, Juliana
Ziemann, Ulf
contents Accurate phase estimation at the edge of data segments is crucial for EEG applications such as EEG-TMS in offline and real-time data analysis. Our research evaluates the phase estimation performance of four commonly used methods (Phastimate, SSPE, ETP, and PhastPadding) for accuracy and systemic biases, using data from young and elderly healthy controls and chronic stroke participants. To address the identified limitations of the established methods, we introduce Phase Estimation with Autoregressive Padding (PEAP), a method that prevents strong bandpass filtering-induced artifacts. Contrary to the established methods, PEAP does not show significant biases and improves accuracy by 3.2 to 9.2% for the continuous phase estimation. Our offline analysis demonstrates how established methods are systematically biased towards some estimates and how they induce phase shifts. We also show that differences between methods do not vary between clinical and control populations, supporting their translatability. This work indicates that systematic biases in established phase estimation methods may compromise the validity and comparability of phase-dependent findings. PEAP addresses these limitations and thus offers a more reliable and more accurate alternative method.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_02212
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Phase estimation with autoregressive padding (PEAP): addressing inaccuracies and biases in EEG analysis
Kirchhoff, Miriam
Rösch, Johanna
Ermolova, Maria
Ahola, Oskari
Harders, Sarah
Hougland, Juliana
Ziemann, Ulf
Neurons and Cognition
Accurate phase estimation at the edge of data segments is crucial for EEG applications such as EEG-TMS in offline and real-time data analysis. Our research evaluates the phase estimation performance of four commonly used methods (Phastimate, SSPE, ETP, and PhastPadding) for accuracy and systemic biases, using data from young and elderly healthy controls and chronic stroke participants. To address the identified limitations of the established methods, we introduce Phase Estimation with Autoregressive Padding (PEAP), a method that prevents strong bandpass filtering-induced artifacts. Contrary to the established methods, PEAP does not show significant biases and improves accuracy by 3.2 to 9.2% for the continuous phase estimation. Our offline analysis demonstrates how established methods are systematically biased towards some estimates and how they induce phase shifts. We also show that differences between methods do not vary between clinical and control populations, supporting their translatability. This work indicates that systematic biases in established phase estimation methods may compromise the validity and comparability of phase-dependent findings. PEAP addresses these limitations and thus offers a more reliable and more accurate alternative method.
title Phase estimation with autoregressive padding (PEAP): addressing inaccuracies and biases in EEG analysis
topic Neurons and Cognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02212