Riemann-Based Algorithms Assessment for Single- And Multiple-Trial P300 Classification in Non-Optimal Environments

Abstract

The P300 wave is commonly used in Brain-Computer Interface technology due to its higher bit rates when compared to other BCI paradigms. P300 classification pipelines based on Riemannian Geometry provide accuracies on par with state-of-the-art pipelines, without having the need for spatial filters, and also possess the ability to be calibrated with little data. In this study, five different P300 detection pipelines are compared, with three of them using Riemannian Geometry as either feature extraction or classification algorithms. The goal of this study is to assess the viability of Riemannian Geometry-based methods in non-optimal environments with sudden background noise changes, rather than maximizing classification accuracy values. For fifteen subjects, the average single-trial accuracy obtained for each pipeline was: 56.06% for Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), 72.13% for Bayesian Linear Discriminant Analysis (BLDA), 63.56% for Riemannian Minimum Distance to Mean (MDM), 69.22% for Riemannian Tangent Space with Logistic Regression (TS-LogR), and 63.30% for Riemannian Tangent Space with Support Vector Machine (TS-SVM). The results are higher for the pipelines based on BLDA and TS-LogR, suggesting that they could be viable methods for the detection of the P300 component when maximizing the bit rate is needed. For multiple-trial classification, the BLDA pipeline converged faster towards higher average values, closely followed by the TS-LogR pipeline. The two remaining Riemannian methods' accuracy also increases with the number of trials, but towards a lower value compared to the aforementioned ones. Single-stimulus detection metrics revealed that the TS-LogR pipeline can be a viable classification method, as its results are only slightly lower than those obtained with BLDA. P300 waveforms were also analyzed to check for evidence of the component being elicited. Finally, a questionnaire was used to retrieve the most intuitive focusing methods employed by the subjects.