SSVEP-based Based Brain-computer Interface System Research Articles

An open dataset for human SSVEPs in the frequency range of 1-60 Hz

A steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) system relies on the photic driving response to effectively elicit characteristic electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. However, traditional visual stimuli mainly adopt high-contrast black-and-white flickering stimulations, which are easy to cause visual fatigue. This paper presents an SSVEP dataset acquired at a wide frequency range from 1 to 60 Hz with an interval of 1 Hz using flickering stimuli under two different modulation depths. This dataset contains 64-channel EEG data from 30 healthy subjects when they fixated on a single flickering stimulus. The stimulus was rendered on an LCD display with a refresh rate of 240 Hz. Initially, the dataset was rigorously validated through comprehensive data analysis to investigate SSVEP responses and user experiences. Subsequently, BCI performance was evaluated through offline simulations of frequency-coded and phase-coded BCI paradigms. This dataset provides comprehensive and high-quality data for studying and developing SSVEP-based BCI systems.

Optimizing Visual Stimulation Paradigms for User-Friendly SSVEP-Based BCIs.

In steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems, traditional flickering stimulation patterns face challenges in achieving a trade-off in both BCI performance and visual comfort across various frequency bands. To investigate the optimal stimulation paradigms with high performance and high comfort for each frequency band, this study systematically compared the characteristics of SSVEP and user experience of different stimulation paradigms with a wide stimulation frequency range of 1-60 Hz. The findings suggest that, for a better balance between system performance and user experience, ON and OFF grid stimuli with a Weber contrast of 50% can be utilized as alternatives to traditional flickering stimulation paradigms in the frequency band of 1-25 Hz. In the 25-35 Hz range, uniform flicker stimuli with the same 50% contrast are more suitable. In the higher frequency band, traditional uniform flicker stimuli with a high 300% contrast are preferred. These results are significant for developing high performance and user-friendly SSVEP-based BCI systems.

Enhancing detection of SSVEP-based BCIs via a novel CCA-based method

ObjectiveFrequency recognition methods based on spatial filtering have been widely studied to enhance the classification performance of steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. This paper proposes a novel canonical correlation analysis (CCA)-based method to improve the recognition performance of SSVEPs. MethodsThe proposed method is based on a novel framework in which two spatial filters are trained using individual training data and SSVEP templates constructed from sine-cosine reference signals for SSVEP denoising and correlation coefficient generation, and then two correlation coefficients are integrated for target frequency recognition. The proposed method was compared with five frequency recognition algorithms requiring spatial filter training. Besides, the ensemble version of the proposed method was further developed and evaluated. Main resultsThe experimental results on two 40-class benchmark datasets recorded from 35 subjects and 70 subjects respectively show that the proposed method outperformed the five competing methods significantly in most cases. ConclusionThe proposed method achieved higher classification accuracy and information transmission rate, shorter training time, and more stable performance. Thus, the proposed CCA-based method is more suitable for SSVEP-based BCI systems.

Multisymbol Time Division Coding for High-Frequency Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential-Based Brain-Computer Interface.

The optimization of coding stimulus is a crucial factor in the study of steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface(BCI).This study proposed an encoding approach named Multi-Symbol Time Division Coding (MSTDC). This approach is based on a protocol of maximizing the distance between neural responses, which aims to encode stimulation systems implementing any number of targets with finite stimulations of different frequencies and phases. Firstly, this study designed an SSVEP-based BCI system containing forty targets with this approach. The stimulation encoding of this system was achieved with four temporal-divided stimuli that adopt the same frequency of 30 Hz and different phases. During the online experiments of twelve subjects, this system achieved an average accuracy of 96.77 ±2.47 % and an average information transfer rate (ITR) of 119.05 ± 6.11 bits/min. This study also devised an SSVEP-based BCI system containing 72 targets and proposed a Template Splicing task-related component analysis (TRCA) algorithm that utilized the dataset of the previous system containing forty targets as the training dataset. The subjects acquired an average accuracy of 86.23 ± 7.75% and an average ITR of 95.68 ± 14.19 bits/min. It can be inferred that MSTDC can encode multiple targets with limited frequencies and phases of stimuli. Meanwhile, this protocol can be effortlessly expanded into other systems and sufficiently reduce the cost of collecting training data. This study provides a feasible technique for obtaining a comfortable SSVEP-based BCI with multiple targets while maintaining high information transfer rate.

Optimizing spatial properties of a new checkerboard-like visual stimulus for user-friendly SSVEP-based BCIs

Objective. Low-frequency steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) systems with high performance are prone to cause visual discomfort and fatigue. High-frequency SSVEP-based BCI systems can alleviate the discomfort, but always obtain lower performance. This study optimized the spatial properties of a proposed checkerboard-like visual stimulus toward high-performance and user-friendly SSVEP-based BCI systems. Approach. On the one hand, two checkerboard-like stimuli with distinct spatial contrasts (the black- and white-background) were designed to balance the tradeoff between BCI performance and user experience and compared with the traditional flickering stimulus. On the other hand, the impacts of the spatial frequency of the new checkerboard-like stimulus on the flicker perception and the intensity of the elicited SSVEP were clarified. The SSVEP-based BCI systems were implemented based on the checkerboard-like stimuli under low-frequency and high-frequency conditions. The user experience for each stimulation pattern was estimated by questionnaires for subjective evaluation. Main results. The comparison results indicate that the black-background checkerboard-like stimulus with an optimized spatial frequency achieved comparable performance and enhanced visual comfort compared with the flickering stimulus. Furthermore, the online nine-target BCI system using the black-background checkerboard-like stimuli achieved averaged information transfer rates of 124.0 ± 2.3 and 109.0 ± 20.4 bits min−1 with low-frequency and high-frequency stimulation respectively. Significance. The new checkerboard-like stimuli with optimized properties show superiority of system performance and user experience in implementing SSVEP-based BCI, which will promote its practical applications in communication and control.

Implementing a calibration-free SSVEP-based BCI system with 160 targets

Objective. Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) is an essential paradigm of electroencephalogram based brain–computer interface (BCI). Previous studies in the BCI research field mostly focused on enhancing classification accuracy and reducing stimuli duration. This study, however, concentrated on increasing the number of available targets in the BCI systems without calibration. Approach. Motivated by the idea of multiple frequency sequential coding, we developed a calibration-free SSVEP–BCI system implementing 160 targets by four continuous sinusoidal stimuli that lasted four seconds in total. Taking advantage of the benchmark dataset of SSVEP–BCI, this study optimized an arrangement of stimuli sequences, maximizing the response distance between different stimuli. We proposed an effective classification algorithm based on filter bank canonical correlation analysis. To evaluate the performance of this system, we conducted offline and online experiments using cue-guided selection tasks. Eight subjects participated in the offline experiments, and 12 subjects participated in the online experiments with real-time feedbacks. Main results. Offline experiments indicated the feasibility of the stimulation selection and detection algorithms. Furthermore, the online system achieved an average accuracy of 87.16 ± 11.46% and an information transfer rate of 78.84 ± 15.59 bits min−1. Specifically, seven of 12 subjects accomplished online experiments with accuracy higher than 90%. This study proposed an intact solution of applying numerous targets to SSVEP-based BCIs. Results of experiments confirmed the utility and efficiency of the system. Significance. This study firstly provides a calibration-free SSVEP–BCI speller system that enables more than 100 commands. This system could significantly expand the application scenario of SSVEP-based BCI. Meanwhile, the design criterion can hopefully enhance the overall performance of the BCI system. The demo video can be found in the supplementary material available online at stacks.iop.org/JNE/18/046094/mmedia.

Signal processing algorithms for SSVEP-based brain computer interface: State-of-the-art and recent developments

Over past two decades, steady-state evoked potentials (SSVEP)-based brain computer interface (BCI) systems have been extensively developed. As we all know, signal processing algorithms play an important role in this BCI. However, there is no comprehensive review of the latest development of signal processing algorithms for SSVEP-based BCI. By analyzing the papers published in authoritative journals in nearly five years, signal processing algorithms of preprocessing, feature extraction and classification modules are discussed in detail. In addition, other aspects existed in this BCI are mentioned. The following key problems are solved. (1) In recent years, which signal processing algorithms are frequently used in each module? (2) Which signal processing algorithms attract more attention in recent years? (3) Which modules are the key to signal processing in BCI field? This information is very important for choosing the appropriate algorithms, and can also be considered as a reference for further research. Simultaneously, we hope that this work can provide relevant BCI researchers with valuable information about the latest trends of signal processing algorithms for SSVEP-based BCI systems.

Spatial fusion of maximum signal fraction analysis for frequency recognition in SSVEP-based BCI

Maximum signal fraction analysis (MSFA) is an efficient method for frequency identification in steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) based brain-computer interface (BCI). However, standard MSFA only utilizes the spatial filter corresponding to the maximum eigenvalue for multichannel EEG signals de-noising and frequency identification, and discards other weight vectors containing discriminant information. In this work, we proposed a new SSVEP frequency recognition method with spatial dimension fusion strategy, i.e., FoMSFA, which employs the information of all spatial filters from standard MSFA, and uses a nonlinear weighting function to fuse multiple sets of correlation coefficients to identify the frequency of SSVEP signal. Numerical results of the benchmark dataset with 35 subjects and our laboratory dataset with 10 subjects show that FoMSFA outperforms the standard MSFA and CCA-based methods. The proposed method has the potential to design high-performance SSVEP-based BCI systems for communication and control.

Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) of Chinese speller for a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A case report

This study applied a steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) based brain–computer interface (BCI) to a patient in lock-in state with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and validated its feasibility for communication. The developed calibration-free and asynchronous spelling system provided a natural and efficient communication experience for the patient, achieving a maximum free-spelling accuracy above 90% and an information transfer rate of over 22.203 bits/min. A set of standard frequency scanning and task spelling data were also acquired to evaluate the patient’s SSVEP response and to facilitate further personalized BCI design. The results demonstrated that the proposed SSVEP-based BCI system was practical and efficient enough to provide daily life communication for ALS patients.

Fusing Canonical Coefficients for Frequency Recognition in SSVEP-Based BCI

The canonical correlation analysis (CCA)-based frequency recognition method is one of the widely used methods in steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI), and several extended version were proposed in the past decade. However, these methods only adopt the maximal correlation coefficient provided by the CCA and discard other coefficients. This operation may lead to the loss of discriminative information that exists in the discarded coefficients. In the current study, we proposed to fuse all the correlation coefficients of the CCA with a nonlinear weighting function when performing frequency recognition with CCA method, termed as FoCCA. Evaluated on a benchmark dataset of thirty-five subjects, the experimental results demonstrated that the classification accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR) of FoCCA are significantly higher than those of the standard CCA at various time windows. Fusing correlation coefficients could be a new strategy to improve the performance of other extended CCA methods, which holds the potential to implement high-performance SSVEP-based BCI systems in the future.

A High-Speed SSVEP-Based BCI Using Dry EEG Electrodes

A high-speed steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) system using dry EEG electrodes was demonstrated in this study. The dry electrode was fabricated in our laboratory. It was designed as claw-like structure with a diameter of 14 mm, featuring 8 small fingers of 6 mm length and 2 mm diameter. The structure and elasticity can help the fingers pass through the hair and contact the scalp when the electrode is placed on head. The electrode was capable of recording spontaneous EEG and evoked brain activities such as SSVEP with high signal-to-noise ratio. This study implemented a twelve-class SSVEP-based BCI system with eight electrodes embedded in a headband. Subjects also completed a comfort level questionnaire with the dry electrodes. Using a preprocessing algorithm of filter bank analysis (FBA) and a classification algorithm based on task-related component analysis (TRCA), the average classification accuracy of eleven participants was 93.2% using 1-second-long SSVEPs, leading to an average information transfer rate (ITR) of 92.35 bits/min. All subjects did not report obvious discomfort with the dry electrodes. This result represented the highest communication speed in the dry-electrode based BCI systems. The proposed system could provide a comfortable user experience and a stable control method for developing practical BCIs.

Evaluating the Performance of Non-Hair SSVEP-Based BCIs Featuring Template-Based Decoding Methods.

Our previous study has demonstrated the feasibility of employing non-hair-bearing electrodes to build a Steadystate Visual Evoked Potential (SSVEP)-based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system, relaxing technical barriers in preparation time and offering an ease-of-use apparatus. The signal quality of the SSVEPs and the resultant performance of the non-hair BCI, however, did not close upon those reported in the state-of-the-art BCI studies based on the electroencephalogram (EEG) measured from the occipital regions. Recently, advanced decoding algorithms such as task-related component analysis have made a breakthrough in enhancing the signal quality of the occipital SSVEPs and the performance of SSVEP-based BCIs in a well-controlled laboratory environment. However, it remains unclear if the advanced decoding algorithms can extract highfidelity SSVEPs from the non-hair EEG and enhance the practicality of non-hair BCIs in real-world environments. This study aims to quantitatively evaluate whether, and if so, to what extent the non-hair BCIs can leverage the state-of-art decoding algorithms. Eleven healthy individuals participated in a 5-target SSVEP BCI experiment. A high-density EEG cap recorded SSVEPs from both hair-covered and non-hair-bearing regions. By evaluating and demonstrating the accessibility of nonhair-bearing behind-ear signals, our assessment characterized constraints on data length, trial numbers, channels, and their relationships with the decoding algorithms, providing practical guidelines to optimize SSVEP-based BCI systems in real-life applications.

Two-Stage Frequency Recognition Method Based on Correlated Component Analysis for SSVEP-Based BCI.

A canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is a state-of-the-art method for frequency recognition in steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. Various extended methods have been developed, and among such methods, a combination method of CCA and individual-template-based CCA has achieved the best performance. However, the CCA requires the canonical vectors to be orthogonal, which may not be a reasonable assumption for the EEG analysis. In this paper, we propose using the correlated component analysis (CORRCA) rather than CCA to implement frequency recognition. CORRCA can relax the constraint of canonical vectors in CCA and generate the same projection vector for two multichannel EEG signals. Furthermore, we propose a two-stage method based on the basic CORRCA method (termed TSCORRCA). Evaluated on a benchmark data set of 35 subjects, the experimental results demonstrate that CORRCA significantly outperformed CCA, and TSCORRCA obtained the best performance among the compared methods. This paper demonstrates that CORRCA-based methods have a great potential for implementing high-performance SSVEP-based BCI systems.

Multivariate empirical mode decomposition and multiscale entropy analysis of EEG signals from SSVEP-based BCI system

The steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) has been employed in the brain-controlled wheelchair system for patients with severe dyskinesia disease. However, a long-time operation brings about users fatigue, leading to a decrease of performance of the BCI system in practical applications. The characterization of the fatigued mechanism and the improvement of the SSVEP classification accuracy remains a challenging problem of significant importance. In this letter, we first conduct SSVEP experiments to acquire the EEG signals during both normal and fatigued states. Then we develop a novel framework, which integrates the advantages of multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) and Support Vector Machine (SVM), for improving the SSVEP classification accuracy, especially during the fatigued state. The results suggest that the novel framework enables us to obtain a higher SSVEP classification accuracy compared with the method without MEMD. Furthermore, in order to reveal the fatigued behavior, we use the multivariate multiscale sample entropy (MMSE) to analyze the multi-channel EEG signals corresponding to normal and fatigued states. We interestingly find that the MMSE values in the fatigued state are lower than that in the normal state, which reflects the increase of regularity in SSVEP signals during the fatigued state. That is, a greater synchronization of neural assemblies is required to realize cognitive impairment when fatigue happens. The knowledge for the understanding of the brain fatigued behavior underlying SSVEP-based BCI experiments is gained by our analysis.

An adaptive optimal-Kernel time-frequency representation-based complex network method for characterizing fatigued behavior using the SSVEP-based BCI system

The Steady State Visual Evoked Potential (SSVEP)-based Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system has seen extensively applications in many fields, such as physical recovery of handicap persons, obstacle avoidance of intelligent vehicles, entertainment and smart homes. However, subjects easily get fatigued because of the involving long-time operations. The presence of fatigue symptoms typically affect the efficiency of the BCI system, so investigating the effects of fatigue on the SSVEP classification accuracy from the perspective of brain network becomes a challenging issue of significant importance. In this paper, we develop an adaptive optimal-Kernel time-frequency representation (AOK-TFR)-based complex network method for characterizing fatigued behavior using the SSVEP-based BCI system. We apply the traditional Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) and Fisher Linear Discriminant Analysis (FLDA) to classify SSVEP signals. We find that the classification accuracy at the fatigue states is significantly lower than that at the normal states. To reveal the reasons, we infer and analyze the AOK-TFR-based functional brain network with SSVEP signals. In particular, we calculate the AOK-TFR of the acquired 30-channel SSVEP signals under both normal and fatigue conditions and then construct a brain network in terms of the two-norm distance between different channels. Our results suggest that the small-world-ness of the network at normal states is prominent, and the main brain regions associated with SSVEP are in the prefrontal cortex and occipital lobe. Our analysis sheds new insights into the understanding and management of the fatigued behavior using the SSVEP-based BCI system.

Novel spatial filter for SSVEP-based BCI: A generated reference filter approach

Steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain computer interface (BCI) systems can be realised using only one electrode; however, due to the inter-user and inter-trial differences, the handling of multiple electrode is preferred. This raises the problem of evaluating information from multiple electrode signals. To solve this problem, we developed a novel spatial filtering method (Generated Reference Filter) for SSVEP-based BCIs. In our method an artificial reference signal is generated by a combination of reference electrode signals. Multiple regression analysis (MRA) was used to determine the optimal weight coefficients for signal combination. The filtered signal was obtained by subtraction. The method was tested on a SSVEP dataset and compared with minimum energy combination and common reference methods, namely the surface Laplacian technique and common average referencing. The newly developed method provided more effective filtering and therefore higher SSVEP detection accuracy was obtained. It was also more robust against subject-to-subject and trial-to-trial variability as the artificial reference signal was recalculated for each detection round. No special preparation is required, and the method is easy to implement. These experimental results indicate that the proposed method can be used confidently with SSVEP-based BCI systems.

Applying fuzzy decision for a single channel SSVEP-based BCI on automatic feeding robot

An application of steady state evoked potential (SSVEP) based brain–computer interface (BCI) has been developed by implementing the fuzzy decision model for the automatic feeding robot. Four blinking boxes were displayed on the corner of the 20″ liquid crystal display monitor as visual stimuli to induce the SSVEP of the subject brain signal. The corresponding electroencephalogram features extracted from fast Fourier transform and magnitude squared coherence were used as inputs of the fuzzy decision algorithm which determine whether it is valid decision or not and decide the selected command. Sixteen subjects participated in the experiment to evaluate the performance of proposed algorithm with the SSVEP-based BCI system embedded inside. The average positive predictive value of experimental results in single visual stimulus test (SVST) and multiple visual stimuli test (MVST) are 90.45 and 91.45%, respectively and F-score are 0.5889 and 0.6038 in SVST and MVST. Therefore, the proposed SSVEP-based BCI can be implemented to control the automatic robot to feed the disabled subjects with more robustness.

An Online Brain-Computer Interface Based on SSVEPs Measured From Non-Hair-Bearing Areas.

Steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) has gained a lot of attention due to its robustness and high information transfer rate (ITR). However, transitioning well-controlled laboratory-oriented BCI demonstrations to real-world applications poses severe challenges for this exciting field. For instance, conducting BCI experiments usually requires skilled technicians to abrade the area of skin underneath each electrode and apply an electrolytic gel or paste to acquire high-quality SSVEPs from hair-covered areas. Our previous proof-of-concept study has proposed an alternative approach that employed electroencephalographic signals collected from easily accessible non-hair-bearing areas including neck, behind the ears, and face to realize an SSVEP-based BCI. The study results showed that, with proper electrode placements and advanced signal-processing algorithms, the SSVEPs measured from non-hair-bearing areas in off-line SSVEP experiments could achieve comparable SNR to that obtained from the hair-bearing occipital areas. This study extended the previous work to systematically investigate the costs and benefits of non-hair SSVEPs. Furthermore, this study developed and evaluated an online BCI system based solely on non-hair EEG signals. A 12-target identification task was employed to quantitatively assess the performance of the online SSVEP-based BCI system. All subjects successfully completed the tasks using non-hair SSVEPs with 84.08 ± 15.60% averaged accuracy and 30.21 ± 10.61 bits/min averaged ITR. The empirical results of this study demonstrated the practicality of implementing an SSVEP-based BCI based on signals from non-hair-bearing areas, significantly improving the feasibility and practicality of real-world BCIs.

Brain–computer interface based on intermodulation frequency

Objective. Most recent steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) systems have used a single frequency for each target, so that a large number of targets require a large number of stimulus frequencies and therefore a wider frequency band. However, human beings show good SSVEP responses only in a limited range of frequencies. Furthermore, this issue is especially problematic if the SSVEP-based BCI takes a PC monitor as a stimulator, which is only capable of generating a limited range of frequencies. To mitigate this issue, this study presents an innovative coding method for SSVEP-based BCI by means of intermodulation frequencies. Approach. Simultaneous modulations of stimulus luminance and color at different frequencies were utilized to induce intermodulation frequencies. Luminance flickered at relatively large frequency (10, 12, 15 Hz), while color alternated at low frequency (0.5, 1 Hz). An attractive feature of the proposed method was that it would substantially increase the number of targets at a single flickering frequency by altering color modulated frequencies. Based on this method, the BCI system presented in this study realized eight targets merely using three flickering frequencies. Main results. The online results obtained from 15 subjects (14 healthy and 1 with stroke) revealed that an average classification accuracy of 93.83% and information transfer rate (ITR) of 33.80 bit min−1 were achieved using our proposed SSVEP-based BCI system. Specifically, 5 out of the 15 subjects exhibited an ITR of 40.00 bit min−1 with a classification accuracy of 100%. Significance. These results suggested that intermodulation frequencies could be adopted as steady responses in BCI, for which our system could be used as a practical BCI system.

Adaptive SSVEP-Based BCI System With Frequency and Pulse Duty-Cycle Stimuli Tuning Design

This study aims to design a steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) based brain-computer interface (BCI) system with only three electrodes. It is known that low frequency flickering induces more intensive SSVEP, but might cause users feel uncomfortable and easily tired. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel middle/high frequency flickering stimulus. However, users show different SSVEP responses when gazing at the same stimuli. It is improper to design fixed frequency flickering stimuli for all users. This study firstly proposes a strategy to adjust the stimuli frequency for each user that could cause better SSVEP. Moreover, to further enhance the SSVEP, this study incorporates flickering duty-cycle for stimuli design, which has been discussed less for SSVEP-based BCI systems. The proposed system consists of two modes, flicker frequency/duty-cycle selection mode and application mode. The flicker frequency/duty-cycle selection mode obtains two best frequencies between 24 and 36 Hz with their related optimal duty-cycle. Then the system goes into the application mode to control the devices. A new fact that has been found is that the optimal flicker frequency and duty-cycle do not vary with time. It means once the optical flicker frequency and duty-cycle is determined the first time, flicker frequency/duty-cycle selection mode does not need to operate the next time. Furthermore, the phase coding technology is used to extend the one command/one frequency to multi command/one frequency. Experimental results show the proposed system has good performance with average accuracy 95% and average command transfer interval 4.4925 s per command.