Comparative analysis of strategies for feature extraction and classification in SSVEP BCIs

Abstract Brain–computer interface (BCI) systems based on electroencephalography have been increasingly used in different contexts, engendering applications from entertainment to rehabilitation in a non-invasive framework. In this study, we perform a comparative analysis of different signal processing techniques for each BCI system stage concerning steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP), which includes: (1) feature extraction performed by different spectral methods (bank of filters, Welch's method and the magnitude of the short-time Fourier transform); (2) feature selection by means of an incremental wrapper, a filter using Pearson's method and a cluster measure based on the Davies–Bouldin index, in addition to a scenario with no selection strategy; (3) classification schemes using linear discriminant analysis (LDA), support vector machines (SVM) and extreme learning machines (ELM). The combination of such methodologies leads to a representative and helpful comparative overview of robustness and efficiency of classical strategies, in addition to the characterization of a relatively new classification approach (defined by ELM) applied to the BCI-SSVEP systems.