Selecting optimal EEG channels for mental tasks classification: An approach using ICA

This paper presents a systematic method to select optimal electroencephalography (EEG) channels for three mental tasks-based brain-computer interface (BCI) classification. A blind source separation (BSS) technique based on independent component analysis (ICA) with its back-projecting of the scalp map was used for selecting the optimal EEG channels. The three mental tasks included: mental letter composing, mental arithmetic and mental Rubik's cube rolling. Based on a power spectral density (PSD), the features of the two-channel EEG data were extracted, and then were classified by Bayesian neural network. The results of the ICA decomposition with the back-projected scalp map showed that the prominent channels could be selected for dominant features from original six EEG channels (C3, C4, P3, P4, O1, O2) to four dominant channels (P3, O1, C4, O2) with the best two EEG channels selection at O1&C4. Two channel combinations classification yielded to the best two EEG channels of O1&C4 with an accuracy of 76.4%, followed by P3&O2 with an accuracy of 74.5%; P3&C4 with an accuracy of 71.9% and O1&O2 with an accuracy of 70%.