Motor Imagery EEG Classification Research Articles

MixNet: Joining Force of Classical and Modern Approaches Toward the Comprehensive Pipeline in Motor Imagery EEG Classification

MixNet: Joining Force of Classical and Modern Approaches Toward the Comprehensive Pipeline in Motor Imagery EEG Classification

Motor imagery EEG classification: study case of unhealthy and healthy subjects

Motor imagery EEG classification: study case of unhealthy and healthy subjects

Wasserstein generative adversarial network with gradient penalty and convolutional neural network based motor imagery EEG classification

Objective.Due to the difficulty in acquiring motor imagery electroencephalography (MI-EEG) data and ensuring its quality, insufficient training data often leads to overfitting and inadequate generalization capabilities of deep learning-based classification networks. Therefore, we propose a novel data augmentation method and deep learning classification model to enhance the decoding performance of MI-EEG further.Approach.The raw EEG signals were transformed into the time-frequency maps as the input to the model by continuous wavelet transform. An improved Wasserstein generative adversarial network with gradient penalty data augmentation method was proposed, effectively expanding the dataset used for model training. Additionally, a concise and efficient deep learning model was designed to improve decoding performance further.Main results.It has been demonstrated through validation by multiple data evaluation methods that the proposed generative network can generate more realistic data. Experimental results on the BCI Competition IV 2a and 2b datasets and the actual collected dataset show that classification accuracies are 83.4%, 89.1% and 73.3%, and Kappa values are 0.779, 0.782 and 0.644, respectively. The results indicate that the proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art methods.Significance.Experimental results demonstrate that this method effectively enhances MI-EEG data, mitigates overfitting in classification networks, improves MI classification accuracy, and holds positive implications for MI tasks.

Toward calibration-free motor imagery brain–computer interfaces: a VGG-based convolutional neural network and WGAN approach

Objective. Motor imagery (MI) represents one major paradigm of Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) in which users rely on their electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to control the movement of objects. However, due to the inter-subject variability, MI BCIs require recording subject-dependent data to train machine learning classifiers that are used to identify the intended motor action. This represents a challenge in developing MI BCIs as it complicates its calibration and hinders the wide adoption of such a technology. Approach. This study focuses on enhancing cross-subject (CS) MI EEG classification using EEG spectrum images. The proposed calibration-free approach employs deep learning techniques for MI classification and Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks (WGAN) for data augmentation. The proposed WGAN generates synthetic spectrum images from the recorded MI-EEG to expand the training dataset; aiming to enhance the classifier’s performance. The proposed approach eliminates the need for any calibration data from the target subject, making it more suitable for real-world applications. Main results. To assess the robustness and efficacy of the proposed framework, we utilized the BCI competition IV-2B, IV-2 A, and IV-1 benchmark datasets, employing leave one-subject out validation. Our results demonstrate that using the proposed modified VGG-CNN classifier in addition to WGAN-generated data for augmentation leads to an enhancement in CS accuracy outperforming state-of-the-art methods. Significance. This approach could represent one step forward towards developing calibration-free BCI systems and hence broaden their applications.

EEG Motor Imagery Classification: Tangent Space with Gate-Generated Weight Classifier.

Individuals grappling with severe central nervous system injuries often face significant challenges related to sensorimotor function and communication abilities. In response, brain-computer interface (BCI) technology has emerged as a promising solution by offering innovative interaction methods and intelligent rehabilitation training. By leveraging electroencephalographic (EEG) signals, BCIs unlock intriguing possibilities in patient care and neurological rehabilitation. Recent research has utilized covariance matrices as signal descriptors. In this study, we introduce two methodologies for covariance matrix analysis: multiple tangent space projections (M-TSPs) and Cholesky decomposition. Both approaches incorporate a classifier that integrates linear and nonlinear features, resulting in a significant enhancement in classification accuracy, as evidenced by meticulous experimental evaluations. The M-TSP method demonstrates superior performance with an average accuracy improvement of 6.79% over Cholesky decomposition. Additionally, a gender-based analysis reveals a preference for men in the obtained results, with an average improvement of 9.16% over women. These findings underscore the potential of our methodologies to improve BCI performance and highlight gender-specific performance differences to be examined further in our future studies.

EEG-DG: A Multi-Source Domain Generalization Framework for Motor Imagery EEG Classification.

Motor imagery EEG classification plays a crucial role in non-invasive Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research. However, the performance of classification is affected by the non-stationarity and individual variations of EEG signals. Simply pooling EEG data with different statistical distributions to train a classification model can severely degrade the generalization performance. To address this issue, the existing methods primarily focus on domain adaptation, which requires access to the test data during training. This is unrealistic and impractical in many EEG application scenarios. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-source domain generalization framework called EEG-DG, which leverages multiple source domains with different statistical distributions to build generalizable models on unseen target EEG data. We optimize both the marginal and conditional distributions to ensure the stability of the joint distribution across source domains and extend it to a multi-source domain generalization framework to achieve domain-invariant feature representation, thereby alleviating calibration efforts. Systematic experiments conducted on a simulative dataset, BCI competition IV 2a, 2b, and OpenBMI datasets, demonstrate the superiority and competitive performance of our proposed framework over other state-of-the-art methods. Specifically, EEG-DG achieves average classification accuracies of 81.79% and 87.12% on datasets IV-2a and IV-2b, respectively, and 78.37% and 76.94% for inter-session and inter-subject evaluations on dataset OpenBMI, which even outperforms some domain adaptation methods. Our code is available at https://github.com/zxchit2022/EEG-DG for evaluation.

EEG Motor imagery classification based on a ConvLSTM Autoencoder framework augmented by attention BiLSTM

EEG Motor imagery classification based on a ConvLSTM Autoencoder framework augmented by attention BiLSTM

Dual regularized spatial-temporal features adaptation for multi-source selected cross-subject motor imagery EEG classification

Feature adaptation plays crucial roles in the calibration process of motor imagery brain computer interfaces (MI-BCIs). Due to the temporal varying and spatial coupling characteristics in MI-electroencephalograph (EEG), recently proposed cross-subject MI-EEG classification methods have suffered from patterns collapse and erroneous labels accumulation, evenly lower efficiency. To address these fundamental limitations, this paper proposes a novel method to represent Spatial-Temporal Features Adaptation based on Dual Regularizations (DRSTFA), and perform a simplest multi-source domain samples selection during adaptation. Specifically, the covariance centroid alignment is applied as the preprocessing, and then common spatial–temporal pattern (CSTP) is represented for aligned MI-EEG samples. Finally, the dual regularizations of cross-domain graph preservation and target domain discriminability strengthen have been incorporated into joint distribution adaptation framework for CSTP feature adaptation. The proposed method has been systematically benchmarked on three BCI competition MI-EEG datasets, and its classification performance surpasses several state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, it effectively captures meaningful temporal varying and spatially coupled features with parameter insensitivity. Our method therefore provides a novel calibration choice for newly subjects participating in MI-BCIs.

An end-to-end multi-task motor imagery EEG classification neural network based on dynamic fusion of spectral-temporal features

Electroencephalograph (EEG) brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have potential to provide new paradigms for controlling computers and devices. The accuracy of brain pattern classification in EEG BCI is directly affected by the quality of features extracted from EEG signals. Currently, feature extraction heavily relies on prior knowledge to engineer features (for example from specific frequency bands); therefore, better extraction of EEG features is an important research direction. In this work, we propose an end-to-end deep neural network that automatically finds and combines features for motor imagery (MI) based EEG BCI with 4 or more imagery classes (multi-task). First, spectral domain features of EEG signals are learned by compact convolutional neural network (CCNN) layers. Then, gated recurrent unit (GRU) neural network layers automatically learn temporal patterns. Lastly, an attention mechanism dynamically combines (across EEG channels) the extracted spectral-temporal features, reducing redundancy. We test our method using BCI Competition IV-2a and a data set we collected. The average classification accuracy on 4-class BCI Competition IV-2a was 85.1 % ± 6.19 %, comparable to recent work in the field and showing low variability among participants; average classification accuracy on our 6-class data was 64.4 % ± 8.35 %. Our dynamic fusion of spectral-temporal features is end-to-end and has relatively few network parameters, and the experimental results show its effectiveness and potential.

An EEG channel selection method for motor imagery based on Fisher score and local optimization

Objective. Multi-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) technology in brain–computer interface (BCI) research offers the advantage of enhanced spatial resolution and system performance. However, this also implies that more time is needed in the data processing stage, which is not conducive to the rapid response of BCI. Hence, it is a necessary and challenging task to reduce the number of EEG channels while maintaining decoding effectiveness. Approach. In this paper, we propose a local optimization method based on the Fisher score for within-subject EEG channel selection. Initially, we extract the common spatial pattern characteristics of EEG signals in different bands, calculate Fisher scores for each channel based on these characteristics, and rank them accordingly. Subsequently, we employ a local optimization method to finalize the channel selection. Main results. On the BCI Competition IV Dataset IIa, our method selects an average of 11 channels across four bands, achieving an average accuracy of 79.37%. This represents a 6.52% improvement compared to using the full set of 22 channels. On our self-collected dataset, our method similarly achieves a significant improvement of 24.20% with less than half of the channels, resulting in an average accuracy of 76.95%. Significance. This research explores the importance of channel combinations in channel selection tasks and reveals that appropriately combining channels can further enhance the quality of channel selection. The results indicate that the model selected a small number of channels with higher accuracy in two-class motor imagery EEG classification tasks. Additionally, it improves the portability of BCI systems through channel selection and combinations, offering the potential for the development of portable BCI systems.

Multi-source deep domain adaptation ensemble framework for cross-dataset motor imagery EEG transfer learning

Objective. Electroencephalography (EEG) is an important kind of bioelectric signal for measuring physiological activities of the brain, and motor imagery (MI) EEG has significant clinical application prospects. Convolutional neural network has become a mainstream algorithm for MI EEG classification, however lack of subject-specific data considerably restricts its decoding accuracy and generalization performance. To address this challenge, a novel transfer learning (TL) framework using auxiliary dataset to improve the MI EEG classification performance of target subject is proposed in this paper. Approach. We developed a multi-source deep domain adaptation ensemble framework (MSDDAEF) for cross-dataset MI EEG decoding. The proposed MSDDAEF comprises three main components: model pre-training, deep domain adaptation, and multi-source ensemble. Moreover, for each component, different designs were examined to verify the robustness of MSDDAEF. Main results. Bidirectional validation experiments were performed on two large public MI EEG datasets (openBMI and GIST). The highest average classification accuracy of MSDDAEF reaches 74.28% when openBMI serves as target dataset and GIST serves as source dataset. While the highest average classification accuracy of MSDDAEF is 69.85% when GIST serves as target dataset and openBMI serves as source dataset. In addition, the classification performance of MSDDAEF surpasses several well-established studies and state-of-the-art algorithms. Significance. The results of this study show that cross-dataset TL is feasible for left/right-hand MI EEG decoding, and further indicate that MSDDAEF is a promising solution for addressing MI EEG cross-dataset variability.

A brain topography graph embedded convolutional neural network for EEG-based motor imagery classification

Brain-computer interface (BCI) based on motor imagery EEG (MI-EEG) has been used extensively in health care, device control, entertainment, and other fields. MI-EEG signals consist of multiple channels that exhibit a specific topological relationship. However, many existing methods based on deep learning do not make good use of the multi-electrode characteristics of EEG signals. To further improve the decoding performance of MI-EEG, this study proposes a novel method combining the brain topology graph embedding and convolutional neural network (CNN) for MI-EEG classification. Specifically, mutual information is used to measure the relationship between EEG channels. A graph convolutional network (GCN) is employed to embed the topological relationship. Following this, a convolutional block using depth-wise convolution is built to extract spatial–temporal features, while a temporal convolutional network (TCN) is used to extract advanced temporal features. The model’s performance is evaluated on BCICIV-2a and HGD datasets. The experimental results show that the classification accuracy of the proposed model is 80.46% and 94.38%, respectively, outperforming existing methods. Moreover, ablation experiments and feature visualization show that graph embedding can significantly improve the decoding performance of MI-EEG.

Multi-scale spatiotemporal attention network for neuron based motor imagery EEG classification

BackgroundIn recent times, the expeditious expansion of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology in neuroscience, which relies on electroencephalogram (EEG) signals associated with motor imagery, has yielded outcomes that rival conventional approaches, notably due to the triumph of deep learning. Nevertheless, the task of developing and training a comprehensive network to extract the underlying characteristics of motor imagining EEG data continues to pose challenges. New methodThis paper presents a multi-scale spatiotemporal self-attention (SA) network model that relies on an attention mechanism. This model aims to classify motor imagination EEG signals into four classes (left hand, right hand, foot, tongue/rest) by considering the temporal and spatial properties of EEG. It is employed to autonomously allocate greater weights to channels linked to motor activity and lesser weights to channels not related to movement, thus choosing the most suitable channels. Neuron utilises parallel multi-scale Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) layers to extract feature information in the temporal domain at various scales, effectively eliminating temporal domain noise. ResultsThe suggested model achieves accuracies of 79.26%, 85.90%, and 96.96% on the BCI competition datasets IV-2a, IV-2b, and HGD, respectively. Comparison with existing methodsIn terms of single-subject classification accuracy, this strategy demonstrates superior performance compared to existing methods. ConclusionThe results indicate that the proposed strategy exhibits favourable performance, resilience, and transfer learning capabilities.

Artifact removal and motor imagery classification in EEG using advanced algorithms and modified DNN

This paper presents an advanced approach for EEG artifact removal and motor imagery classification using a combination of Four Class Iterative Filtering and Filter Bank Common Spatial Pattern Algorithm with a Modified Deep Neural Network (DNN) classifier. The research aims to enhance the accuracy and reliability of BCI systems by addressing the challenges posed by EEG artifacts and complex motor imagery tasks.The methodology begins by introducing FCIF, a novel technique for ocular artifact removal, utilizing iterative filtering and filter banks. FCIF's mathematical formulation allows for effective artifact mitigation, thereby improving the quality of EEG data. In tandem, the FC-FBCSP algorithm is introduced, extending the Filter Bank Common Spatial Pattern approach to handle four-class motor imagery classification. The Modified DNN classifier enhances the discriminatory power of the FC-FBCSP features, optimizing the classification process.The paper showcases a comprehensive experimental setup, featuring the utilization of BCI Competition IV Dataset 2a & 2b. Detailed preprocessing steps, including filtering and feature extraction, are presented with mathematical rigor. Results demonstrate the remarkable artifact removal capabilities of FCIF and the classification prowess of FC-FBCSP combined with the Modified DNN classifier. Comparative analysis highlights the superiority of the proposed approach over baseline methods and the method achieves the mean accuracy of 98.575%.

Enhancing Motor Imagery Electroencephalography Classification with a Correlation-Optimized Weighted Stacking Ensemble Model

In the evolving field of Brain–Computer Interfaces (BCIs), accurately classifying Electroencephalography (EEG) signals for Motor Imagery (MI) tasks is challenging. We introduce the Correlation-Optimized Weighted Stacking Ensemble (COWSE) model, an innovative ensemble learning framework designed to improve MI EEG signal classification. The COWSE model integrates sixteen machine learning classifiers through a weighted stacking approach, optimizing performance by balancing the strengths and weaknesses of each classifier based on error correlation analysis and performance metrics evaluation across benchmark datasets. The COWSE model’s development involves selecting base classifiers, dynamically assigning weights according to performance, and employing a meta-classifier trained on these weighted predictions. Testing on the BNCI2014-002 dataset, the COWSE model achieved classification accuracy exceeding 98.16%, marking a significant advancement in MI EEG classification. This study highlights the potential of integrating multiple machine learning classifiers to address the complex challenges of EEG signal classification. By achieving new benchmarks and showcasing enhanced classification capabilities, the COWSE model contributes significantly to BCI research, encouraging further exploration into advanced ensemble learning strategies.

Deep-learning-based motor imagery EEG classification by exploiting the functional connectivity of cortical source imaging

Deep-learning-based motor imagery EEG classification by exploiting the functional connectivity of cortical source imaging

NF-EEG: A generalized CNN model for multi class EEG motor imagery classification without signal preprocessing for brain computer interfaces

ObjectiveBrain Computer Interface (BCI) systems have been developed to identify and classify brain signals and integrate them into a control system. Even though many different methods and models have been developed for the brain signals classification, the majority of these studies have emerged as specialized models. In addition, preprocessing and signal preprocessing methods which are largely based on human knowledge and experience have been used extensively for classification models. These methods degrade the performance of real-time BCI systems and require great time and effort to design and implement the right method. Approach: In order to eliminate these disadvantages, we developed a generalized and robust CNN model called as No-Filter EEG (NF-EEG) to classify multi class motor imagery brain signals with raw data and without applying any signal preprocessing methods. In an attempt to increase the speed and success of this developed model, input reshaping has been made and various data augmentation methods have been applied to the data. Main results: Compared to many other state-of-the-art models, NF-EEG outperformed leading state-of-the-art models in two most used motor imagery datasets and achieved 93.56% in the two-class BCI-IV-2A dataset and 88.40% in the two-class BCI-IV-2B dataset and 81.05% accuracy in the classification of four-class BCI-IV-2A dataset. Significance: This proposed method has emerged as a generalized model without signal preprocessing and it greatly reduces the time and effort required for preparation for classification, prevents human-induced errors on the data, presents very effective input reshaping, and also increases the classification accuracy.

Semi-supervised multi-source transfer learning for cross-subject EEG motor imagery classification.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) motor imagery (MI) classification refers to the use of EEG signals to identify and classify subjects' motor imagery activities; this task has received increasing attention with the development of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). However, the collection of EEG data is usually time-consuming and labor-intensive, which makes it difficult to obtain sufficient labeled data from the new subject to train a new model. Moreover, the EEG signals of different individuals exhibit significant differences, leading to a significant drop in the performance of a model trained on the existing subjects when directly classifying EEG signals acquired from new subjects. Therefore, it is crucial to make full use of the EEG data of the existing subjects and the unlabeled EEG data of the new target subject to improve the MI classification performance achieved for the target subject. This research study proposes a semi-supervised multi-source transfer (SSMT) learning model to address the above problems; the model learns informative and domain-invariant representations to address cross-subject MI-EEG classification tasks. In particular, a dynamic transferred weighting schema is presented to obtain the final predictions by integrating the weighted features derived from multi-source domains. The average accuracies achieved on two publicly available EEG datasets reach 83.57 and 85.09 , respectively, validating the effectiveness of the SSMT process. The SSMT process reveals the importance of informative and domain-invariant representations in MI classification tasks, as they make full use of the domain-invariant information acquired from each subject.

Noise-Factorized Disentangled Representation Learning for Generalizable Motor Imagery EEG Classification.

Motor Imagery (MI) Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the most common Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) paradigms that has been widely used in neural rehabilitation and gaming. Although considerable research efforts have been dedicated to developing MI EEG classification algorithms, they are mostly limited in handling scenarios where the training and testing data are not from the same subject or session. Such poor generalization capability significantly limits the realization of BCI in real-world applications. In this paper, we proposed a novel framework to disentangle the representation of raw EEG data into three components, subject/session-specific, MI-task-specific, and random noises, so that the subject/session-specific feature extends the generalization capability of the system. This is realized by a joint discriminative and generative framework, supported by a series of fundamental training losses and training strategies. We evaluated our framework on three public MI EEG datasets, and detailed experimental results show that our method can achieve superior performance by a large margin compared to current state-of-the-art benchmark algorithms.

Selective multi–view time–frequency decomposed spatial feature matrix for motor imagery EEG classification

Decoding brain activity from non-invasive motor imagery electroencephalograph (MI-EEG) has garnered significant attentions for brain-computer interface (BCI) and brain disorders. Notably, owing to the remarkable advances in feature representation, extracting and selecting discriminative features in EEG decoding has gained widespread popularity in recent years. However, many EEG studies suffer from limited sample sizes with low signal-to-noise ratio, making it difficult to effectively represent complementary features in a single view. To address this fundamental limitation, this paper proposes a novel method to Selective extract the Multi-View Time-Frequency decomposed Spatial (S-MVTFS) feature matrix, which employs spatial features from Euclidean and Riemannian spaces based on time–frequency decompositions. It selectively extracts discriminative features on manifold embedded space and classifies feature matrix through sparse support matrix machine. The proposed method has been systematically benchmarked on three BCI competition MI-EEG datasets, and its classification performance surpasses several state-of-the-art methods. Notably, the S-MVTFS method achieved average classification improvements of 0.45%, 2.28%, and 2.04% on BCI-III dataset 4a, BCI-IV dataset 1, and BCI-IV dataset 2a, respectively. Moreover, it effectively captures meaningful temporal varying and spatially coupled features with parameter insensitivity. Our method therefore provides a novel MI-EEG tailored feature representation for decoding brain activity.