An EEG-based perceptual function integration network for application to drowsy driving

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Drowsy driving is among the most critical causes of fatal crashes. Thus, the development of an effective algorithm for detecting a driver's cognitive state demands immediate attention. For decades, studies have observed clear evidence using electroencephalography that the brain's rhythmic activities fluctuate from alertness to drowsiness. Recognition of this physiological signal is the major consideration of neural engineering for designing a feasible countermeasure. This study proposed a perceptual function integration system which used spectral features from multiple independent brain sources for application to recognize the driver's vigilance state. The analysis of brain spectral dynamics demonstrated physiological evidenced that the activities of the multiple cortical sources were highly related to the changes of the vigilance state. The system performances showed a robust and improved accuracy as much as 88% higher than any of results performed by a single-source approach

A LightGBM-Based EEG Analysis Method for Driver Mental States Classification

Fatigue driving can easily lead to road traffic accidents and bring great harm to individuals and families. Recently, electroencephalography- (EEG-) based physiological and brain activities for fatigue detection have been increasingly investigated. However, how to find an effective method or model to timely and efficiently detect the mental states of drivers still remains a challenge. In this paper, we combine common spatial pattern (CSP) and propose a light-weighted classifier, LightFD, which is based on gradient boosting framework for EEG mental states identification. ,e comparable results with traditional classifiers, such as support vector machine (SVM), convolutional neural network (CNN), gated recurrent unit (GRU), and large margin nearest neighbor (LMNN), show that the proposed model could achieve better classification performance, as well as the decision efficiency. Furthermore, we also test and validate that LightFD has better transfer learning performance in EEG classification of driver mental states. In summary, our proposed LightFD classifier has better performance in real-time EEG mental state prediction, and it is expected to have broad application prospects in practical brain-computer interaction (BCI)

A new perspective for the training assessment: Machine learning-based neurometric for augmented user's evaluation

Inappropriate training assessment might have either high social costs and economic impacts, especially in high risks categories, such as Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, or Surgeons. One of the current limitations of the standard training assessment procedures is the lack of information about the amount of cognitive resources requested by the user for the correct execution of the proposed task. In fact, even if the task is accomplished achieving the maximum performance, by the standard training assessment methods, it would not be possible to gather and evaluate information about cognitive resources available for dealing with unexpected events or emergency conditions. Therefore, a metric based on the brain activity (neurometric) able to provide the Instructor such a kind of information should be very important. As a first step in this direction, the Electroencephalogram (EEG) and the performance of 10 participants were collected along a training period of 3 weeks, while learning the execution of a new task. Specific indexes have been estimated from the behavioral and EEG signal to objectively assess the users' training progress. Furthermore, we proposed a neurometric based on a machine learning algorithm to quantify the user's training level within each session by considering the level of task execution, and both the behavioral and cognitive stabilities between consecutive sessions. The results demonstrated that the proposed methodology and neurometric could quantify and track the users' progresses, and provide the Instructor information for a more objective evaluation and better tailoring of training programs. © 2017 Borghini, Aricò, Di Flumeri, Sciaraffa, Colosimo, Herrero, Bezerianos, Thakor and Babiloni

An Evaluation of the EEG Alpha-to-Theta and Theta-to-Alpha Band Ratios as Indexes of Mental Workload

Many research works indicate that EEG bands, specifically the alpha and theta bands, have been potentially helpful cognitive load indicators. However, minimal research exists to validate this claim. This study aims to assess and analyze the impact of the alpha-to-theta and the theta-to-alpha band ratios on supporting the creation of models capable of discriminating self-reported perceptions of mental workload. A dataset of raw EEG data was utilized in which 48 subjects performed a resting activity and an induced task demanding exercise in the form of a multitasking SIMKAP test. Band ratios were devised from frontal and parietal electrode clusters. Building and model testing was done with high-level independent features from the frequency and temporal domains extracted from the computed ratios over time. Target features for model training were extracted from the subjective ratings collected after resting and task demand activities. Models were built by employing Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machines and Decision Trees and were evaluated with performance measures including accuracy, recall, precision and f1-score. The results indicate high classification accuracy of those models trained with the high-level features extracted from the alpha-to-theta ratios and theta-to-alpha ratios. Preliminary results also show that models trained with logistic regression and support vector machines can accurately classify self-reported perceptions of mental workload. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by demonstrating the richness of the information in the temporal, spectral and statistical domains extracted from the alpha-to-theta and theta-to-alpha EEG band ratios for the discrimination of self-reported perceptions of mental workload

An Evaluation of the EEG Alpha-to-Theta and Theta-to-Alpha Band Ratios as Indexes of Mental Workload

Many research works indicate that EEG bands, specifically the alpha and theta bands, have been potentially helpful cognitive load indicators. However, minimal research exists to validate this claim. This study aims to assess and analyze the impact of the alpha-to-theta and the theta-to-alpha band ratios on supporting the creation of models capable of discriminating self-reported perceptions of mental workload. A dataset of raw EEG data was utilized in which 48 subjects performed a resting activity and an induced task demanding exercise in the form of a multitasking SIMKAP test. Band ratios were devised from frontal and parietal electrode clusters. Building and model testing was done with high-level independent features from the frequency and temporal domains extracted from the computed ratios over time. Target features for model training were extracted from the subjective ratings collected after resting and task demand activities. Models were built by employing Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machines and Decision Trees and were evaluated with performance measures including accuracy, recall, precision and f1-score. The results indicate high classification accuracy of those models trained with the high-level features extracted from the alpha-to-theta ratios and theta-to-alpha ratios. Preliminary results also show that models trained with logistic regression and support vector machines can accurately classify self-reported perceptions of mental workload. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by demonstrating the richness of the information in the temporal, spectral and statistical domains extracted from the alpha-to-theta and theta-to-alpha EEG band ratios for the discrimination of self-reported perceptions of mental workload

Analytical methods and experimental approaches for electrophysiological studies of brain oscillations

Brain oscillations are increasingly the subject of electrophysiological studies probing their role in the functioning and dysfunction of the human brain. In recent years this research area has seen rapid and significant changes in the experimental approaches and analysis methods. This article reviews these developments and provides a structured overview of experimental approaches, spectral analysis techniques and methods to establish relationships between brain oscillations and behaviour

EEG filtering based on blind source separation (BSS) for early detection of Alzheimer's disease

Objective: Development of an EEG preprocessing technique for improvement of detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The technique is based on filtering of EEG data using blind source separation (BSS) and projection of components which are possibly sensitive to cortical neuronal impairment found in early stages of AD. Method: Artifact-free 20 s intervals of raw resting EEG recordings from 22 patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) who later proceeded to AD and 38 age-matched normal controls were decomposed into spatio-temporally decorrelated components using BSS algorithm ‘AMUSE’. Filtered EEG was obtained by back projection of components with the highest linear predictability. Relative power of filtered data in delta, theta, alpha1, alpha2, beta1, and beta 2 bands were processed with Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). Results: Preprocessing improved the percentage of correctly classified patients and controls computed with jack-knifing cross-validation from 59 to 73% and from 76 to 84%, correspondingly. Conclusions: The proposed approach can significantly improve the sensitivity and specificity of EEG based diagnosis. Significance: Filtering based on BSS can improve the performance of the existing EEG approaches to early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. It may also have potential for improvement of EEG classification in other clinical areas or fundamental research. The developed method is quite general and flexible, allowing for various extensions and improvements. q 2004 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. on behalf of International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology

Connectivity dynamics from wakefulness to sleep

Interest in time-resolved connectivity in fMRI has grown rapidly in recent years. The most widely used technique for studying connectivity changes over time utilizes a sliding windows approach. There has been some debate about the utility of shorter versus longer windows, the use of fixed versus adaptive windows, as well as whether observed resting state dynamics during wakefulness may be predominantly due to changes in sleep state and subject head motion. In this work we use an independent component analysis (ICA)-based pipeline applied to concurrent EEG/fMRI data collected during wakefulness and various sleep stages and show: 1) connectivity states obtained from clustering sliding windowed correlations of resting state functional network time courses well classify the sleep states obtained from EEG data, 2) using shorter sliding windows instead of longer non-overlapping windows improves the ability to capture transition dynamics even at windows as short as 30 ​s, 3) motion appears to be mostly associated with one of the states rather than spread across all of them 4) a fixed tapered sliding window approach outperforms an adaptive dynamic conditional correlation approach, and 5) consistent with prior EEG/fMRI work, we identify evidence of multiple states within the wakeful condition which are able to be classified with high accuracy. Classification of wakeful only states suggest the presence of time-varying changes in connectivity in fMRI data beyond sleep state or motion. Results also inform about advantageous technical choices, and the identification of different clusters within wakefulness that are separable suggest further studies in this direction.Fil: Damaraju, Eswar. Instituto Tecnológico de Georgia; Estados UnidosFil: Tagliazucchi, Enzo Rodolfo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Laufs, Helmut. Goethe Universitat Frankfurt; AlemaniaFil: Calhoun, Vince D.. Instituto Tecnológico de Georgia; Estados Unido

EEG functional connectivity metrics wPLI and wSMI account for distinct types of brain functional interactions

Abstract: The weighted Phase Lag Index (wPLI) and the weighted Symbolic Mutual Information (wSMI) represent two robust and widely used methods for MEG/EEG functional connectivity estimation. Interestingly, both methods have been shown to detect relative alterations of brain functional connectivity in conditions associated with changes in the level of consciousness, such as following severe brain injury or under anaesthesia. Despite these promising findings, it was unclear whether wPLI and wSMI may account for distinct or similar types of functional interactions. Using simulated high-density (hd-)EEG data, we demonstrate that, while wPLI has high sensitivity for couplings presenting a mixture of linear and nonlinear interdependencies, only wSMI can detect purely nonlinear interaction dynamics. Moreover, we evaluated the potential impact of these differences on real experimental data by computing wPLI and wSMI connectivity in hd-EEG recordings of 12 healthy adults during wakefulness and deep (N3-)sleep, characterised by different levels of consciousness. In line with the simulation-based findings, this analysis revealed that both methods have different sensitivity for changes in brain connectivity across the two vigilance states. Our results indicate that the conjoint use of wPLI and wSMI may represent a powerful tool to study the functional bases of consciousness in physiological and pathological conditions