by Tim Pfeiffer, Nicolai Heinze, Robert Frysch, Leon Y. Deouell, Mircea A. Schoenfeld, Robert T. Knight, Georg Rose
Abstract:
Objective. Adapting classifiers for the purpose of brain signal decoding is a major challenge in brain–computer-interface (BCI) research. In a previous study we showed in principle that hidden Markov models (HMM) are a suitable alternative to the well-studied static classifiers. However, since we investigated a rather straightforward task, advantages from modeling of the signal could not be assessed. Approach. Here, we investigate a more complex data set in order to find out to what extent HMMs, as a dynamic classifier, can provide useful additional information. We show for a visual decoding problem that besides category information, HMMs can simultaneously decode picture duration without an additional training required. This decoding is based on a strong correlation that we found between picture duration and the behavior of the Viterbi paths. Main results. Decoding accuracies of up to 80\% could be obtained for category and duration decoding with a single classifier trained on category information only. Significance. The extraction of multiple types of information using a single classifier enables the processing of more complex problems, while preserving good training results even on small databases. Therefore, it provides a convenient framework for online real-life BCI utilizations.
Reference:
Extracting duration information in a picture category decoding task using hidden Markov Models (Tim Pfeiffer, Nicolai Heinze, Robert Frysch, Leon Y. Deouell, Mircea A. Schoenfeld, Robert T. Knight, Georg Rose), In Journal of Neural Engineering, volume 13, 2016.
Bibtex Entry:
@article{pfeiffer_extracting_2016,
	title = {Extracting duration information in a picture category decoding task using hidden {Markov} {Models}},
	volume = {13},
	url = {http://stacks.iop.org/1741-2552/13/i=2/a=026010},
	abstract = {Objective. Adapting classifiers for the purpose of brain signal decoding is a major challenge in brain–computer-interface (BCI) research. In a previous study we showed in principle that hidden Markov models (HMM) are a suitable alternative to the well-studied static classifiers. However, since we investigated a rather straightforward task, advantages from modeling of the signal could not be assessed. Approach. Here, we investigate a more complex data set in order to find out to what extent HMMs, as a dynamic classifier, can provide useful additional information. We show for a visual decoding problem that besides category information, HMMs can simultaneously decode picture duration without an additional training required. This decoding is based on a strong correlation that we found between picture duration and the behavior of the Viterbi paths. Main results. Decoding accuracies of up to 80\% could be obtained for category and duration decoding with a single classifier trained on category information only. Significance. The extraction of multiple types of information using a single classifier enables the processing of more complex problems, while preserving good training results even on small databases. Therefore, it provides a convenient framework for online real-life BCI utilizations.},
	number = {2},
	journal = {Journal of Neural Engineering},
	author = {Pfeiffer, Tim and Heinze, Nicolai and Frysch, Robert and Deouell, Leon Y. and Schoenfeld, Mircea A. and Knight, Robert T. and {Georg Rose}},
	year = {2016},
	pages = {026010}
}