Detection of quadratic phase coupling from human EEG signals using higher order statistics and spectra

Interactions among neural signals in different frequency components have become a focus of strong interest in biomedical signal processing. The bispectrum is a method to detect the presence of quadratic phase coupling (QPC) between different frequency bands in a signal. The traditional way to quantify phase coupling is by means of the bicoherence index (BCI), which is essentially a normalized bispectrum. The main disadvantage of the BCI is that the determination of significant QPC becomes compromised with noise. To mitigate this problem, a statistical approach that combines the bispectrum with an improved surrogate data method to determine the statistical significance of the phase coupling is introduced. The method was first tested on two simulation examples. It was then applied to the human EEG signal that has been recorded from the scalp using international 10–20 electrodes system. The frequency domain method, based on normalized spectrum and bispectrum, describes frequency interactions associated with nonlinearities occurring in the observed EEG.     

基于切片谱的脑电特征分析

脑电信号包含与人脑的生理结构、状态等相关的大量信息。由于脑电信号很容易受到其他噪声的污染,并且其本身又具有很强的随机性,为了更好地提取脑电信号中的有用信息,运用三阶累积量切片谱分析法对临床实测脑电数据进行分析。仿真结果表明,该方法能有效抑制随机信号中的加性高斯噪声,并且能揭示不同状态下癫痫脑电信号中的非线性耦合现象,这表明该方法将为研究脑电信号提供一个新的途径。     

Higher-order spectral analysis of burst patterns in EEG

Burst suppression patterns in electroencephalograms (EEG's) have been observed in a variety of situations including recovery of a subject from a traumatic brain injury. They are associated with grave prognostic outcomes in neonates. The authors study power spectral parameters and bispectral parameters of the EEG at baseline, during early recovery from an asphyxic arrest (EEG burst patterns) and during late recovery after EEG evolves into a more continuous activity. The bicoherence indexes, which indicate the degree of phase coupling between two frequency components of a signal, are significantly higher within the δ-&thetas; band of the EEG bursts than in the baseline or late recovery waveforms. The bispectral parameters show a more detectable trend than the power spectral parameters. In the second part of the study, the authors looked into the possibility of higher (>2)-order nonlinearities in the EEG bursts using the diagonal slices of the polyspectrum. The diagonal elements of the polyspectrum reveal the presence of self-frequency and self-phase coupling of orders higher than two in majority of the EEG bursts studied. The bicoherence indexes and the diagonal elements of the polyspectrum strongly indicate the presence of nonlinearities of order two and in many cases higher, in the EEG generator during episodes of bursting. This indication of nonlinearity in EEG signals provides a novel quantitative measure of brain's response to injury     

Approximate Time-Variable Coherence Analysis of Multichannel Signals

We present a new method for signal extraction from noisy multichannel epileptic seizure onset EEG signals. These signals are non-stationary which makes time-invariant filtering unsuitable. The new method assumes a signal model and performs denoising by filtering the signal of each channel using a time-variable filter which is an estimate of the Wiener filter. The approximate Wiener filters are obtained using the time-frequency coherence functions between all channel pairs, and a fix-point algorithm. We estimate the coherence functions using the multiple window method, after which the fix-point algorithm is applied. Simulations indicate that this method improves upon its restriction to assumed stationary signals for realistically non-stationary data, in terms of mean square error, and we show that it can also be used for time-frequency representation of noisy multichannel signals. The method was applied to two epileptic seizure onset signals, and it turned out that the most informative output of the method are the filters themselves studied in the time-frequency domain. They seem to reveal hidden features of the epileptic signal which are otherwise invisible. This algorithm can be used as preprocessing for seizure onset EEG signals prior to time-frequency representation and manual or algorithmic pattern classification.     

对角切片谱法分析信号中相位耦合的频率分量

给出了三阶累积量对角切片谱的性质，分析了水中目标辐射信号的特点，并将3阶累积量对角切片谱法应用于提取水下目标辐射信号中相位耦合的频率分量。以水下某目标辐射噪声的实测数据为例，进行了仿真研究。结果表明，该方法在提取水下运动目标辐射信号中的参加相位耦合的频率分量和相位耦合产生的频率分量、抑制环境噪声和非耦合的频率分量等方面的性能优于自相关谱法。     

Fourier-Based Feature Extraction for Classification of EEG Signals Using EEG Rhythms

In this paper, we propose a method for the analysis and classification of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals using EEG rhythms. The EEG rhythms capture the nonlinear complex dynamic behavior of the brain system and the nonstationary nature of the EEG signals. This method analyzes common frequency components in multichannel EEG recordings, using the filter bank signal processing. The mean frequency (MF) and RMS bandwidth of the signal are estimated by applying Fourier-transform-based filter bank processing on the EEG rhythms, which we refer intrinsic band functions, inherently present in the EEG signals. The MF and RMS bandwidth estimates, for the different classes (e.g., ictal and seizure-free, open eyes and closed eyes, inter-ictal and ictal, healthy volunteers and epileptic patients, inter-ictal epileptogenic and opposite to epileptogenic zone) of EEG recordings, are statistically different and hence used to distinguish and classify the two classes of signals using a least-squares support vector machine classifier. Experimental results, with 100 % classification accuracy, on a real-world EEG signals database analysis illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for EEG signal classification.     

Spatio-temporal dynamics prior to neocortical seizures: amplitude versus phase couplings

The mechanisms underlying the transition of brain activity toward epileptic seizures remain unclear. Based on nonlinear analysis of both intracranial and scalp electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings, different research groups have recently reported dynamical smooth changes in epileptic brain activity several minutes before seizure onset. Such preictal states have been detected in populations of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and, more recently, with different neocortical partial epilepsies (NPEs). In this paper, we are particularly interested in the spatio-temporal organization of epileptogenic networks prior to seizures in neocortical epilepsies. For this, we characterize the network of two patients with NPE by means of two nonlinear measures of interdependencies. Since the synchronization of neuronal activity is an essential feature of the generation and propagation of epileptic activity, we have analyzed changes in phase synchrony between EEG time series. In order to compare the phase and amplitude dynamics, we have also studied the degree of association between pairs of signals by means of a nonlinear correlation coefficient. Recent findings have suggested changes prior to seizures in a wideband frequency range. Instead, for the examples of this study, we report a significant decrease of synchrony in the focal area several minutes before seizures (>30 min in both patients) in the frequency band of 10-25 Hz mainly. Furthermore, the spatio-temporal organization of this preictal activity seems to be specifically related to this frequency band. Measures of both amplitude and phase coupling yielded similar results in narrow-band analysis. These results may open new perspectives on the mechanisms of seizure emergence as well as the organization of neocortical epileptogenic networks. The possibility of forecasting the onset of seizures has important implications for a better understanding, diagnosis and a potential treatment of the epilepsy.     

Alternate half-field stimulation technique for SSVEP-based brain-computer interfaces

A technique of half-field alternate visual stimulation, combined with differential EEG signal measurement, is applied to acquire steady-state brain-evoked signals. Taking the difference of two signals, measured with properly placed electrodes, enhances the visual-evoked potential (VEP) and suppresses the noise components. An array of different-flash-frequency light-emitting-diode (LED) pairs forms a multiple-choice table. By fixating at different LED pairs, the user communicates (by the VEP of corresponding frequency) his/her decision about the selection of the table entry.     

A novel phase congruency based algorithm for online data reduction in ambulatory EEG systems

Real signals are often corrupted by noise with a power spectrum variable over time. In applications involving these signals, it is expected that dynamically estimating and correcting for this noise would increase the amount of useful information extracted from the signal. One such application is scalp EEG monitoring in epilepsy, where electrical activity generated by cranio-facial muscles obscure the measured brainwaves. This paper presents a data-selection algorithm based on phase congruency to identify interictal spikes from background EEG; together with a novel statistical method that allows a more comprehensive trade-off based quantitative comparison of two algorithms which have been tested at a fixed threshold in the same database. Here, traditional phase congruency has been modified to incorporate a dynamic estimate of muscle activity present in the input scalp EEG signal. The proposed algorithm achieves 50% data reduction whilst detecting more than 80% of interictal spikes. This represents a significant improvement over the state-of-the-art denoising method for phase congruency.     

Implementation of compressive sensing in ECG and EEG signal processing

The purpose of this paper is to exploit compressive sensing(CS)method in dealing with electrocardiography(ECG)and electroencephalography(EEG)signals at a high compression ratio. In order to get sparse data of ECG and EEG signals before being compressed, a combined scheme was presented by using wavelet transform and iterative threshold method; then, compressive sensing is executed to make the data compressed. After doing compressive sensing, Bayesian compressive sensing(BCS)is used to reconstruct the original signals. The simulation results show that compressive sensing is an effective method to make data compressed for ECG and EEG signals with high compression ratio and good quality of reconstruction. Furthermore, it shows that the proposed scheme has good denoising effects.     

Enhancement of phase clustering in the EEG/MEG gamma frequency band anticipates transitions to paroxysmal epileptiform activity in epileptic patients with known visual sensitivity

A new analytical method for quantifying brain activity from magnetoelectroencephalogram (MEG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings during periodic light stimulation is proposed. It consists in estimating the phase clustering of harmonically related frequency components of a subject's MEG/EEG responses evoked by the light stimulation. The method was developed to test the hypothesis that changes in the dynamics of brain systems in the course of intermittent photic stimulation (IPS) may precede the transition to seizure activity in photosensitive patients. We assumed that such changes would be reflected in the phase of harmonic components of the evoked responses. Thus, we determined the phase clustering for different harmonic components of these MEG/EEG signals. We found that the patients who develop epileptiform discharges during IPS present an enhancement of the phase clustering index at the gamma frequency band, compared with that at the driving frequency. We introduce a quantity--relative phase clustering index (rPCI)--by means of which this enhancement can be quantified. We argue that this quantity reflects the degree of excitability of the underlying dynamical system and it can indicate presence of nonlinear dynamics. rPCI can be applied to detect transitions to epileptic seizure activity in patients with known sensitivity to IPS.     

Multivariate phase-amplitude cross-frequency coupling in neurophysiological signals

Phase-amplitude cross-frequency coupling (CFC)-where the phase of a low-frequency signal modulates the amplitude or power of a high-frequency signal-is a topic of increasing interest in neuroscience. However, existing methods of assessing CFC are inherently bivariate and cannot estimate CFC between more than two signals at a time. Given the increase in multielectrode recordings, this is a strong limitation. Furthermore, the phase coupling between multiple low-frequency signals is likely to produce a high rate of false positives when CFC is evaluated using bivariate methods. Here, we present a novel method for estimating the statistical dependence between one high-frequency signal and N low-frequency signals, termed multivariate phase-coupling estimation (PCE). Compared to bivariate methods, the PCE produces sparser estimates of CFC and can distinguish between direct and indirect coupling between neurophysiological signals-critical for accurately estimating coupling within multiscale brain networks.     

Cognitive IoT-Cloud Integration for Smart Healthcare: Case Study for Epileptic Seizure Detection and Monitoring

We propose a cognitive Internet of Things (IoT)–cloud-based smart healthcare framework, which communicates with smart devices, sensors, and other stakeholders in the healthcare environment; makes an intelligent decision based on a patient’s state; and provides timely, low-cost, and accessible healthcare services. As a case study, an EEG seizure detection method using deep learning is also proposed to access the feasibility of the cognitive IoT–cloud smart healthcare framework. In the proposed method, we use smart EEG sensors (apart from general healthcare smart sensors) to record and transmit EEG signals from epileptic patients. Thereafter, the cognitive framework makes a real-time decision on future activities and whether to send the data to the deep learning module. The proposed system uses the patient’s movements, gestures, and facial expressions to determine the patient’s state. Signal processing and seizure detection take place in the cloud, while signals are classified as seizure or non-seizure with a probability score. The results are transmitted to medical practitioners or other stakeholders who can monitor the patients and, in critical cases, make the appropriate decisions to help the patient. Experimental results show that the proposed model achieves an accuracy and sensitivity of 99.2 and 93.5%, respectively.     

Time-frequency characterization of interdependencies in nonstationary signals: application to epileptic EEG

For the past decades, numerous works have been dedicated to the development of signal processing methods aimed at measuring the degree of association between electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. This interdependency parameter, which may be defined in various ways, is often used to characterize a functional coupling between different brain structures or regions during either normal or pathological processes. In this paper, we focus on the time-frequency characterization of the interdependency between signals. Particularly, we propose a novel estimator of the linear relationship between nonstationary signals based on the cross correlation of narrow band filtered signals. This estimator is compared to a more classical estimator based on the coherence function. In a simulation framework, results show that it may exhibit better statistical performances (bias and variance or mean square error) when a priori knowledge about time delay between signals is available. On real data (intracerebral EEG signals), results show that this estimator may also enhance the readability of the time-frequency representation of relationship and, thus, can improve the interpretation of nonstationary interdependencies in EEG signals. Finally, we illustrate the importance of characterizing the relationship in both time and frequency domains by comparing with frequency-independent methods (linear and nonlinear).     

Massively parallel classification of single-trial EEG signals using a min-max modular neural network

This paper presents a method for classifying single-trial electroencephalogram (EEG) signals using min-max modular neural networks implemented in a massively parallel way. The method has three main steps. First, a large-scale, complex EEG classification problem is simply divided into a reasonable number of two-class subproblems, as small as needed. Second, the two-class subproblems are simply learned by individual smaller network modules in parallel. Finally, all the individual trained network modules are integrated into a hierarchical, parallel, and modular classifier according to two module combination laws. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, we perform simulations on fifteen different four-class EEG classification tasks, each of which consists of 1491 training and 636 test data. These EEG classification tasks were created using a set of non-averaged, single-trial hippocampal EEG signals recorded from rats; the features of the EEG signals are extracted using wavelet transform techniques. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method has several attractive features. 1) The method is appreciably faster than the existing approach that is based on conventional multilayer perceptrons. 2) Complete learning of complex EEG classification problems can be easily realized, and better generalization performance can be achieved. 3) The method scales up to large-scale, complex EEG classification problems.     

四元数和超复数在二维二次非线性相位耦合分析中的应用

针对二维二次非线性相位耦合分析中的分维配对问题,本文首先对一般二维谐波信号模型进行变换,构造了符合四元数结构的新的信号模型.接着讨论了Hamilton四元数、三维超复数及"新四元数"在估计二维谐波频率中的可能性.最后根据上述模型利用特殊的三阶累积量切片分析了加性高斯有色噪声中二维二次非线性相位耦合及联合Hamilton四元数和超复数在二维二次非线性相位耦合中的应用前景.此方法避免了在复数模型的二维二次非线性相位耦合分析中构造复杂的增广矩阵,并从根本上解决了通过分维求取频率之后,频率配对中所有可能产生的错误频率对,以及有可能产生的两维频率估计精度的不平衡性.仿真实验验证了本文的理论.     

基于PCANet和SVM的谎言测试研究

主成分分析网络（Principal Component Analysis Network,PCANet）是基于深度学习理论的一种非监督式的特征提取方法,它克服了手工提取特征的缺点,目前其有效性仅仅在图像处理领域中得到了验证。本文针对当前谎言测试方法中脑电信号特征提取困难的缺点,首次将PCANet方法应用到一维信号的特征提取领域,并对测谎实验的原始脑电信号提取特征,然后使用支持向量机（Support Vector Machine,SVM）将说谎者和诚实者的两类信号进行分类识别,将实验结果和其它分类器及未使用特征提取的分类效果进行了比较。实验结果显示相对未抽取任何特征的方法,提出的方法PCANet－SVM可以获得更高的训练和测试准确率,表明了PCANet方法对于脑电信号特征提取的有效性,也为基于脑电信号的测谎提供了一种新的途径。     

Time-frequency spectral estimation of multichannel EEG using the Auto-SLEX method

In this paper, we apply a new time-frequency spectral estimation method for multichannel data to epileptiform electroencephalography (EEG). The method is based on the smooth localized complex exponentials (SLEX) functions which are time-frequency localized versions of the Fourier functions and, hence, are ideal for analyzing nonstationary signals whose spectral properties evolve over time. The SLEX functions are simultaneously orthogonal and localized in time and frequency because they are obtained by applying a projection operator rather than a window or taper. In this paper, we present the Auto-SLEX method which is a statistical method that 1) computes the periodogram using the SLEX transform, 2) automatically segments the signal into approximately stationary segments using an objective criterion that is based on log energy, and 3) automatically selects the optimal bandwidth of the spectral smoothing window. The method is applied to the intracranial EEG from a patient with temporal lobe epilepsy. This analysis reveals a reduction in average duration of stationarity in preseizure epochs of data compared to baseline. These changes begin up to hours prior to electrical seizure onset in this patient.     

色彩感知中的脑电信号多域特征选择算法研究

针对目前在不同色彩感知中的脑电信号识别方面的研究还不多见,本文提出采用随机森林算法对信号的时域特征和频域特征进行最优组合的方法对不同色彩感知中的脑电信号进行识别。首先采用小波变换,对脑电信号进行7层分解,提取脑电信号在delta、theta、alpha和beta节律频带上的小波能量,并结合脑电信号在时域上的统计量偏度和峰度组成特征向量。然后通过基于随机森林的特征选择算法提取最优的特征组合方案,删除冗余的特征量。使用自适应增强算法进行分类识别,识别的平均正确率可达到85.07%。该结果表明使用本文所提出的特征提取与选择方法用于不同色彩感知中的脑电信号识别上是可行的,并且能够取得较好的识别率。      

二次相位耦合的1维谱分析

二次相位耦合的识别在ＥＥＧ数据分析，海洋地理、声纳和生物医学等领域有着广泛的应用。本文在原有利用双谱对二次相位耦合进行分析的基础上，提出了维谱分析方法。模拟实验结果表明，该方法分辨率高，计算方法简单、运算速度快，具有广泛的实用价值