Header logo is

Beamforming in Noninvasive Brain-Computer Interfaces




Spatial filtering (SF) constitutes an integral part of building EEG-based braincomputer interfaces (BCIs). Algorithms frequently used for SF, such as common spatial patterns (CSPs) and independent component analysis, require labeled training data for identifying filters that provide information on a subject‘s intention, which renders these algorithms susceptible to overfitting on artifactual EEG components. In this study, beamforming is employed to construct spatial filters that extract EEG sources originating within predefined regions of interest within the brain. In this way, neurophysiological knowledge on which brain regions are relevant for a certain experimental paradigm can be utilized to construct unsupervised spatial filters that are robust against artifactual EEG components. Beamforming is experimentally compared with CSP and Laplacian spatial filtering (LP) in a two-class motor-imagery paradigm. It is demonstrated that beamforming outperforms CSP and LP on noisy datasets, while CSP and beamforming perform almost equally well on datasets with few artifactual trials. It is concluded that beamforming constitutes an alternative method for SF that might be particularly useful for BCIs used in clinical settings, i.e., in an environment where artifact-free datasets are difficult to obtain.

Author(s): Grosse-Wentrup, M. and Liefhold, C. and Gramann, K. and Buss, M.
Journal: IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
Volume: 56
Number (issue): 4
Pages: 1209-1219
Year: 2009
Month: April
Day: 0

Department(s): Empirical Inference
Bibtex Type: Article (article)

Digital: 0
DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2008.2009768
Language: en
Organization: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
School: Biologische Kybernetik

Links: PDF


  title = {Beamforming in Noninvasive Brain-Computer Interfaces},
  author = {Grosse-Wentrup, M. and Liefhold, C. and Gramann, K. and Buss, M.},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering},
  volume = {56},
  number = {4},
  pages = {1209-1219},
  organization = {Max-Planck-Gesellschaft},
  school = {Biologische Kybernetik},
  month = apr,
  year = {2009},
  month_numeric = {4}