Time-frequency selection in two bipolar channels for improving the classification of motor imagery EEG

An end-to-end CNN with attentional mechanism applied to raw EEG in a BCI classification task

Objective.Motor-imagery (MI) classification base on electroencephalography (EEG) has been long studied in neuroscience and more recently widely used in healthcare applications such as mobile assistive robots and neurorehabilitation. In particular, EEG-based MI classification methods that rely on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have achieved relatively high classification accuracy. However, naively training CNNs to classify raw EEG data from all channels, especially for high-density EEG, is computationally demanding and requires huge training sets. It often also introduces many irrelevant input features, making it difficult for the CNN to extract the informative ones. This problem is compounded by a dearth of training data, which is particularly acute for MI tasks, because these are cognitively demanding and thus fatigue inducing.Approach.To address these issues, we proposed an end-to-end CNN-based neural network with attentional mechanism together with different data augmentation (DA) techniques. We tested it on two benchmark MI datasets, brain-computer interface (BCI) competition IV 2a and 2b. In addition, we collected a new dataset, recorded using high-density EEG, and containing both MI and motor execution (ME) tasks, which we share with the community.Main results.Our proposed neural-network architecture outperformed all state-of-the-art methods that we found in the literature, with and without DA, reaching an average classification accuracy of 93.6% and 87.83% on BCI 2a and 2b, respectively. We also directly compare decoding of MI and ME tasks. Focusing on MI classification, we find optimal channel configurations and the best DA techniques as well as investigate combining data across participants and the role of transfer learning.Significance.Our proposed approach improves the classification accuracy for MI in the benchmark datasets. In addition, collecting our own dataset enables us to compare MI and ME and investigate various aspects of EEG decoding critical for neuroscience and BCI.

HS-CNN: a CNN with hybrid convolution scale for EEG motor imagery classification

OBJECTIVE

Electroencephalography (EEG) motor imagery classification has been widely used in healthcare applications such as mobile assistive robots and post-stroke rehabilitation. Recently, EEG motor imagery classification methods based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been proposed and have achieved relatively high classification accuracy. However, these methods use single convolution scale in the CNN, while the best convolution scale differs from subject to subject. This limits the classification accuracy. Another issue is that the classification accuracy degrades when training data is limited.

APPROACH

To address these issues, we have proposed a hybrid-scale CNN architecture with a data augmentation method for EEG motor imagery classification.

MAIN RESULTS

Compared with several state-of-the-art methods, the proposed method achieves an average classification accuracy of 91.57% and 87.6% on two commonly used datasets, which outperforms several state-of-the-art EEG motor imagery classification methods.

SIGNIFICANCE

The proposed method effectively addresses the issues of existing CNN-based EEG motor imagery classification methods and improves the classification accuracy.

Simple Convolutional Neural Network for Left-Right Hands Motor Imagery EEG Signals Classification

This article proposes a classification method of two-class motor imagery electroencephalogram (EEG) signals based on convolutional neural network (CNN), in which EEG signals from C3, C4 and Cz electrodes of publicly available BCI competition IV dataset 2b were used to test the performance of the CNN. The authors investigate two similar CNNs: a single-input CNN with a form of 2-dimensional input from short time Fourier transform (STFT) combining time, frequency and location information, and a multiple-input CNN with 3-dimensional input which processes the electrodes as an independent dimension. Fisher discriminant analysis-type F-score based on band pass (BP) feature and power spectra density (PSD) feature are employed respectively to select the subject-optimal frequency bands. In the experiments, typical frequency bands related to motor imagery EEG signals, subject-optimal frequency bands and extension frequency bands are employed respectively as the frequency range of the input image of CNN. The better classification performance of extension frequency bands show that CNN can extract optimal feature from frequency information automatically. The classification result also demonstrates that the proposed approach is more competitive in prediction of left/right hand motor imagery task compared with other state-of-art approaches.