Ocular artifact elimination from electroencephalography signals: A systematic review

Abstract

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the signal of intrigue that has immense application in the clinical diagnosis of various neurological, psychiatric, psychological, psychophysiological, and neurocognitive disorders. It is significantly crucial in neural communication, brain-computer interface, and other practical tasks. EEG signal is exceptionally susceptible to artifacts, which are external noise signals originated from non-cerebral regions. The interference of artifacts in EEG signals can potentially affect the original recorded EEG signal quality and pattern. Therefore, artifact removal from EEG signal is critically important before applying it to a specific task for accurate outcomes. Researchers have proposed numerous techniques to remove various artifacts present in the contaminated EEG signal. However, neither optimum method nor criterion stands standard for endorsement of clinically recorded EEG signals. Therefore, the research related to artifact elimination from EEG signal is challenging and perplexing task. This paper attempts to give an extensive outline of the advancement in methodologies to eliminate one of the most common artifacts, i.e., ocular artifact. It is anticipated that the study will enlighten the researchers on all the existing ocular artifact elimination techniques with a validated simulation model on the recorded EEG signal. In future advancements, Standard norms in artifact elimination techniques are expected to diminish the neurologist's load by substantiating the clinical diagnosis after gaining correct information from artifact-free EEG signals.