Accurate, fast, and reliable multiclass classification of electroencephalography (EEG) signals is a challenging task towards the development of motor imagery brain-computer interface (MI-BCI) systems. We propose enhancements to different feature extractors, along with a support vector machine (SVM) classifier, to simultaneously improve classification accuracy and execution time during training and testing. We focus on the well-known common spatial pattern (CSP) and Riemannian covariance methods, and significantly extend these two feature extractors to multiscale temporal and spectral cases. The multiscale CSP features achieve 73.70$\pm$15.90% (mean$\pm$ standard deviation across 9 subjects) classification accuracy that surpasses the state-of-the-art method [1], 70.6$\pm$14.70%, on the 4-class BCI competition IV-2a dataset. The Riemannian covariance features outperform the CSP by achieving 74.27$\pm$15.5% accuracy and executing 9x faster in training and 4x faster in testing. Using more temporal windows for Riemannian features results in 75.47$\pm$12.8% accuracy with 1.6x faster testing than CSP.
Riemannian geometry has been applied to Brain Computer Interface (BCI) for brain signals classification yielding promising results. Studying electroencephalographic (EEG) signals from their associated covariance matrices allows a mitigation of common sources of variability (electronic, electrical, biological) by constructing a representation which is invariant to these perturbations. While working in Euclidean space with covariance matrices is known to be error-prone, one might take advantage of algorithmic advances in information geometry and matrix manifold to implement methods for Symmetric Positive-Definite (SPD) matrices. This paper proposes a comprehensive review of the actual tools of information geometry and how they could be applied on covariance matrices of EEG. In practice, covariance matrices should be estimated, thus a thorough study of all estimators is conducted on real EEG dataset. As a main contribution, this paper proposes an online implementation of a classifier in the Riemannian space and its subsequent assessment in Steady-State Visually Evoked Potential (SSVEP) experimentations.
Data-driven spatial filtering algorithms optimize scores such as the contrast between two conditions to extract oscillatory brain signal components. Most machine learning approaches for filter estimation, however, disregard within-trial temporal dynamics and are extremely sensitive to changes in training data and involved hyperparameters. This leads to highly variable solutions and impedes the selection of a suitable candidate for, e.g.,~neurotechnological applications. Fostering component introspection, we propose to embrace this variability by condensing the functional signatures of a large set of oscillatory components into homogeneous clusters, each representing specific within-trial envelope dynamics. The proposed method is exemplified by and evaluated on a complex hand force task with a rich within-trial structure. Based on electroencephalography data of 18 healthy subjects, we found that the components' distinct temporal envelope dynamics are highly subject-specific. On average, we obtained seven clusters per subject, which were strictly confined regarding their underlying frequency bands. As the analysis method is not limited to a specific spatial filtering algorithm, it could be utilized for a wide range of neurotechnological applications, e.g., to select and monitor functionally relevant features for brain-computer interface protocols in stroke rehabilitation.