Artifact Removal Methods in EEG Recordings: A Review

To obtain the correct analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, non-physiological and physiological artifacts should be removed from EEG signals. This study aims to give an overview on the existing methodology for removing physiological artifacts, e.g., ocular, cardiac, and muscle artifacts. The datasets, simulation platforms, and performance measures of artifact removal methods in previous related research are summarized. The advantages and disadvantages of each technique are discussed, including regression method, filtering method, blind source separation (BSS), wavelet transform (WT), empirical mode decomposition (EMD), singular spectrum analysis (SSA), and independent vector analysis (IVA). Also, the applications of hybrid approaches are presented, including discrete wavelet transform - adaptive filtering method (DWT-AFM), DWT-BSS, EMD-BSS, singular spectrum analysis - adaptive noise canceler (SSA-ANC), SSA-BSS, and EMD-IVA. Finally, a comparative analysis for these existing methods is provided based on their performance and merits. The result shows that hybrid methods can remove the artifacts more effectively than individual methods

Ongoing EEG artifact correction using blind source separation

Objective: Analysis of the electroencephalogram (EEG) for epileptic spike and seizure detection or brain-computer interfaces can be severely hampered by the presence of artifacts. The aim of this study is to describe and evaluate a fast automatic algorithm for ongoing correction of artifacts in continuous EEG recordings, which can be applied offline and online. Methods: The automatic algorithm for ongoing correction of artifacts is based on fast blind source separation. It uses a sliding window technique with overlapping epochs and features in the spatial, temporal and frequency domain to detect and correct ocular, cardiac, muscle and powerline artifacts. Results: The approach was validated in an independent evaluation study on publicly available continuous EEG data with 2035 marked artifacts. Validation confirmed that 88% of the artifacts could be removed successfully (ocular: 81%, cardiac: 84%, muscle: 98%, powerline: 100%). It outperformed state-of-the-art algorithms both in terms of artifact reduction rates and computation time. Conclusions: Fast ongoing artifact correction successfully removed a good proportion of artifacts, while preserving most of the EEG signals. Significance: The presented algorithm may be useful for ongoing correction of artifacts, e.g., in online systems for epileptic spike and seizure detection or brain-computer interfaces.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 3 table

ARTIFACT CHARACTERIZATION, DETECTION AND REMOVAL FROM NEURAL SIGNALS

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Motion Artifact Processing Techniques for Physiological Signals

The combination of reducing birth rate and increasing life expectancy continues to drive the demographic shift toward an ageing population and this is placing an ever-increasing burden on our healthcare systems. The urgent need to address this so called healthcare \time bomb" has led to a rapid growth in research into ubiquitous, pervasive and distributed healthcare technologies where recent advances in signal acquisition, data storage and communication are helping such systems become a reality. However, similar to recordings performed in the hospital environment, artifacts continue to be a major issue for these systems. The magnitude and frequency of artifacts can vary signicantly depending on the recording environment with one of the major contributions due to the motion of the subject or the recording transducer. As such, this thesis addresses the challenges of the removal of this motion artifact removal from various physiological signals. The preliminary investigations focus on artifact identication and the tagging of physiological signals streams with measures of signal quality. A new method for quantifying signal quality is developed based on the use of inexpensive accelerometers which facilitates the appropriate use of artifact processing methods as needed. These artifact processing methods are thoroughly examined as part of a comprehensive review of the most commonly applicable methods. This review forms the basis for the comparative studies subsequently presented. Then, a simple but novel experimental methodology for the comparison of artifact processing techniques is proposed, designed and tested for algorithm evaluation. The method is demonstrated to be highly eective for the type of artifact challenges common in a connected health setting, particularly those concerned with brain activity monitoring. This research primarily focuses on applying the techniques to functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) data due to their high susceptibility to contamination by subject motion related artifact. Using the novel experimental methodology, complemented with simulated data, a comprehensive comparison of a range of artifact processing methods is conducted, allowing the identication of the set of the best performing methods. A novel artifact removal technique is also developed, namely ensemble empirical mode decomposition with canonical correlation analysis (EEMD-CCA), which provides the best results when applied on fNIRS data under particular conditions. Four of the best performing techniques were then tested on real ambulatory EEG data contaminated with movement artifacts comparable to those observed during in-home monitoring. It was determined that when analysing EEG data, the Wiener lter is consistently the best performing artifact removal technique. However, when employing the fNIRS data, the best technique depends on a number of factors including: 1) the availability of a reference signal and 2) whether or not the form of the artifact is known. It is envisaged that the use of physiological signal monitoring for patient healthcare will grow signicantly over the next number of decades and it is hoped that this thesis will aid in the progression and development of artifact removal techniques capable of supporting this growth

Characterization and filtering of electroencephalogram contaminated by electromyography of facial muscles

The Electroencephalogram (EEG) has been the most preferred way of recording brain activity due to its noninvasiveness and affordability benefits. Information estimated from EEG has been employed broadly, e.g., for diagnosis or as an input signal to Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). Nevertheless, the EEG is prone to artifacts including non-brain physiological activities, such as eye blinking and the contraction of the muscles of the scalp. Some applications such as BCI systems may occasionally be associated with frequent contractions of muscles of the head corrupting the EEG-based control signal. This requires the application of several filtering techniques. However, the gold standard techniques for signal filtering still contain limitations, such as the incapacity of eliminating noise in all EEG channels. For this reason, besides studying and applying filtering techniques, it is necessary to understand the contamination from electromyogram (EMG) along the scalp. Several studies concluded that EMG artifact contaminates the EEG at frequencies beginning at 15 Hz on the topographic distribution of the energy that encompasses practically the entire scalp. Thus, the present work aims to quantitatively estimate EMG noise in 16 bipolar channels of EEG distributed along the scalp according to the 10-20 system. This estimation was based on an experimental protocol considering the simultaneous acquisition of EEG and EMG of five facial muscles sampled at 5 kHz. The protocol consisted of activating facial muscles while listening to 15 beep sounds. The evaluated muscles were frontal, masseter, zygomatic, orbicularis oculi, and orbicularis oris. The mean power of the EEG contaminated by EMG of facial muscle contractions was compared between the periods of muscle contraction and non-contraction. The results show that EMG contamination from frontal and masseter muscles are present over the scalp with an increase from 63.5 μV2 to 816 μV2 and from 118.3 μV2 to 5,617.9 μV2, respectively. Also, this work proposes a technique for EMG artifact removal that is less sensitive to low SNR as the current gold standard techniques. The proposed method, so-called EMDRLS, employs Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) to generate an EMG noise reference to an adaptive Recursive Least Squares (RLS) filter. To test the EMDRLS method, EEG signals were collected from 10 healthy subjects during the controlled execution of successive facial muscular contractions. The experimental protocol considered the isolated activation of the masseter and frontal muscles. EEG corrupted signals were filtered by the EMDRLS method considering distinct SNRs. The results were compared to traditional approaches: Wiener, Wavelet, EMD, and a hybrid wavelet-RLS filtering method. The following performance metrics were considered in the comparative evaluation: (i) SNR of the contaminated signal; (ii) the root mean square error (RMSE) between the power spectrum of artifact-free and filtered EEG epochs; (iii) the spectral preservation of brain rhythms (i.e., delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma) of filtered signals. For EEG signals with SNR below -10dB, the EMDRLS method yielded filtered EEG signals with SNR varying from 0 to 10 dB. The technique reduced the RMSE of frontal channels from 1.202 to 0.043, which are the source of the most corrupted EEG signals. The Kruskal-Wallis test and the Tukey-Kramer post-hoc test (p < 0.05) confirmed the preservation of all brain rhythms given by EEG signals filtered with the EMDRLS method. The results have shown that the single-channel EMDRLS method can be applied to highly contaminated EEG signals by facial EMG signal with performance superior to that of established methods.CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível SuperiorCNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e TecnológicoFAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas GeraisTese (Doutorado)O Eletroencefalograma (EEG), é uma medida da atividade cerebral que ostenta as vantagens de portabilidade, baixo custo, alta resolução temporal e não invasivo. Os desafios desse exame são os artefatos de diferentes fontes que tornam a análise de dados do EEG mais difícil, e que potencialmente resulta em erros de interpretação. Portanto, é essencial para muitas aplicações médicas e práticas remover esses artefatos no pré-processamento antes de analisar os dados do EEG. Nos últimos trinta anos, vários métodos foram desenvolvidos para remover diferentes tipos de artefatos de dados de EEG contaminados; ainda assim, não há nenhum método padrão que pode ser usado de forma otimizada e, portanto, a pesquisa permanece atraente e desafiadora. Algumas aplicações, como as Interfaces Homem Computador (HCI), podem ocasionalmente estar associadas a frequentes contrações dos músculos da cabeça, corrompendo o sinal de controle baseado no EEG, requerendo a aplicação de alguma técnica de filtragem. No entanto, as técnicas padrão de ouro para filtragem de sinal ainda contêm limitações, como a incapacidade de eliminar o ruído em todos os canais EEG com relações sinal-ruído (SNR) muito baixas e quando a faixa espectral do ruído sobrepõe a do EEG, que caracteriza diversas contaminações no EEG, mas principalmente a contaminação oriunda do sinal eletromiográfico. Por esta razão, além de estudar e aplicar técnicas de filtragem, é necessário entender a contaminação do eletromiograma (EMG) ao longo do couro cabeludo. Alguns estudos concluíram que o artefato EMG contamina o EEG em frequências a partir de 15 Hz em uma distribuição topográfica que engloba praticamente todo o couro cabeludo. Assim, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo estimar quantitativamente o ruído EMG em 16 canais bipolares de EEG distribuídos ao longo do couro cabeludo de acordo com o sistema 10-20. Essa estimativa foi baseada em um protocolo experimental considerando a aquisição simultânea de EEG e EMG de cinco músculos faciais amostrados a 5 kHz. O protocolo consistiu em ativar os músculos faciais enquanto o voluntário ouvisse 15 sons de bip. Os músculos avaliados foram o frontal, masseter, temporal, zigomático, orbicular do olho e orbicular da boca. A potência média do EEG contaminado pela EMG das contrações da musculatura facial foi comparado entre os períodos de contração muscular e não contração. Os resultados mostram que a contaminação muscular do frontal e do masseter provoca um aumento de energia sobre o couro cabeludo de 63,5 μV2 para 816 μV2 e de 118,3 μV2 para 5,617,9 μV2, respectivamente. Além disso, este trabalho propõe uma técnica de remoção do artefato de EMG menos sensível a baixas SNRs que as atuais técnicas padrão ouro. O método proposto, chamado EMDRLS, emprega Decomposição do Modo Empírico (EMD) para gerar uma referência de ruído EMG a um filtro RLS (Recursive Least Squares) adaptativo. Para testar o EMDRLS, foram coletados sinais de EEG de 10 indivíduos saudáveis durante a execução controlada de sucessivas contrações musculares faciais. O protocolo experimental considerou a ativação isolada dos músculos masseter e frontal. Os sinais corrompidos por EEG foram filtrados por EMDRLS considerando SNRs distintos. Os resultados foram comparados às abordagens tradicionais: Wiener, Wavelet, EMD e um método de filtragem híbrido wavelet-RLS. As seguintes métricas de desempenho foram consideradas na avaliação comparativa: (i) SNR do sinal contaminado; (ii) o erro quadrático médio da raiz (RMSE) entre o espectro de potência das épocas de EEG filtradas e sem artefatos; (iii) a preservação espectral de ritmos cerebrais (isto é, delta, teta, alfa, beta e gama) dos sinais filtrados. Para sinais EEG com SNR abaixo de -10dB, o método EMDRLS produziu sinais EEG filtrados com SNR variando de 0 a 10 dB. A técnica reduziu o RMSE dos canais frontais de 1,202 para 0,043, que são a fonte dos sinais de EEG mais corrompidos. O teste de Kruskal-Wallis e o teste post-hoc de Tukey-Kramer (p <0,05) confirmaram a preservação de todos os ritmos cerebrais dados pelos sinais de EEG filtrados pelo método EMDRLS. Os resultados mostraram que o método EMDRLS pode ser aplicado a sinais EEG altamente contaminados por sinal facial EMG com desempenho superior ao dos métodos estabelecidos

Concurrent fNIRS and EEG for brain function investigation: A systematic, methodology-focused review

Electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) stand as state-of-the-art techniques for non-invasive functional neuroimaging. On a unimodal basis, EEG has poor spatial resolution while presenting high temporal resolution. In contrast, fNIRS offers better spatial resolution, though it is constrained by its poor temporal resolution. One important merit shared by the EEG and fNIRS is that both modalities have favorable portability and could be integrated into a compatible experimental setup, providing a compelling ground for the development of a multimodal fNIRS-EEG integration analysis approach. Despite a growing number of studies using concurrent fNIRS-EEG designs reported in recent years, the methodological reference of past studies remains unclear. To fill this knowledge gap, this review critically summarizes the status of analysis methods currently used in concurrent fNIRS-EEG studies, providing an up-to-date overview and guideline for future projects to conduct concurrent fNIRS-EEG studies. A literature search was conducted using PubMed and Web of Science through 31 August 2021. After screening and qualification assessment, 92 studies involving concurrent fNIRS-EEG data recordings and analyses were included in the final methodological review. Specifically, three methodological categories of concurrent fNIRS-EEG data analyses, including EEG-informed fNIRS analyses, fNIRS-informed EEG analyses, and parallel fNIRS-EEG analyses, were identified and explained with detailed description. Finally, we highlighted current challenges and potential directions in concurrent fNIRS-EEG data analyses in future research

Automated and Reliable Low-Complexity SoC Design Methodology for EEG Artefacts Removal

EEG is a non-invasive tool for neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosis (NDD) and treatment. However, EEG signal is mixed with other biological signals including Ocular and Muscular artefacts making it difficult to extract the diagnostic features. Therefore, the contaminated EEG channels are often discarded by the medical practitioners which may result in less accurate diagnosis. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and wavelet-based algorithms require reference electrodes, which will create discomfort to the patient/children and cause hindrance to the diagnosis of the NDD and Brain Computer Interface (BCI). Therefore, it would be ideal if these artefacts can be removed real time and on hardware platform in an automated fashion and denoised EEG can be used for online diagnosis in a pervasive personalised healthcare environment without the need of any reference electrode. In this thesis we propose a reliable, robust and automated methodology to solve the aforementioned problem and its subsequent hardware implementation results are also presented. 100 EEG data from Physionet, Klinik fur Epileptologie, Universitat Bonn, Germany, Caltech EEG databases and 3 EEG data from 3 subjects from University of Southampton, UK have been studied and nine exhaustive case studies comprising of real and simulated data have been formulated and tested. The performance of the proposed methodology is measured in terms of correlation, regression and R-square statistics and the respective values lie above 80%, 79% and 65% with the gain in hardware complexity of 64.28% and hardware delay 53.58% compared to state-ofthe art approach. We believe the proposed methodology would be useful in next generation of pervasive healthcare for BCI and NDD diagnosis and treatment