2008 International Conference on BioMedical Engineering and Informatics

Feature Extraction of EEG Signals Using Power Spectral Entropy

Aihua Zhang, Bin Yang, Ling Huang

Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou 730050
E-mail:[email protected]

Abstract extract the features of different EEG signals, such as

power spectral estimation, AR model[2, 3]and wavelet
Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) use electroenc- transform (WT)[4] etc. Extracting band energy by
ephalography (EEG) signals recorded from the scalp power spectral estimation needs determine subject-
to create a new communication channel between the specific frequency band, AR model needs determine
brain and an output device by bypassing conventional appropriate order of the model, and wavelet analysis
motor output pathways of nerves and muscles. One of needs select proper mother wavelet. In order to extract
the most important components of BCI is feature features which can best reflect the different mental
extraction of EEG signals. How to rapidly and reliably tasks, a new EEG feature with power spectral entropy
extract EEG features for expressing the brain states of (PSE) is proposed in this paper. PSE based-on
different mental tasks is the crucial element for exact Shannon information theory is an index of complexity
classification. This paper presents an approach that measure for an uncertain system. It has a good metrical
performs EEG feature extraction during imagined effect for the change of nonlinear dynamic states, and
right and left hand movements by using power spectral that it just needs a little data, so this method is well
entropy (PSE). It acquires good classification results suited the analysis of imaginary EEG signals [5, 6].
with the time-variable linear classifier. The maximal Interrelated work includes that using it for studying the
accuracy achieves 90%.The results show that the PSE extent of focal ischemic cerebral injury [7], monitoring
is a sensitive parameter for EEG of imaginary hand the stages of sleep [8] and studying relationship between
movements. The method is simple and quick and it age and cardiovascular system [9].
provides a promising method for on-line BCI system. In this paper, the values of PSE are calculated as
feature of EEG signals during imagined right and left
1. Introduction hand movements. Time-variable classifier is used for
classification of signals. Finally, the satisfactory result
Patients in a late stage of amyotrophic lateral is obtained with the highest classification accuracy
sclerosis (ALS) or suffering from a locked-in 90%. The result shows that the PSE is a sensitive
syndrome are not able to produce any voluntary muscle parameter for EEG signals of imaginary hand
movements [1]. Brain–computer interfaces (BCI) are movements. The method is simple and quick and it
systems that allow us to translate human intentions provides a promising method for on-line BCI system.
reflected by suitable brain signals into a control signal In the following sections, the description of the data
for an output device such as a cursor on computer set, PSE algorithm and time-variable linear classifier
screen, wheel chair or artificial limb. They do not rely are presented in Section 2. Section 3 presents
on muscular activity and can therefore provide a new classification results and discussion. A brief conclusion
communication and control channel for those patients. is given in Section 4.
The present work mainly focuses on off-line research
of BCI. It was achieved correct recognition for 2. Methods
different mental tasks by extracting relevant features of
EEG signals for expressing the brain states. 2.1. Description of the data set
One of the most important components of BCI is the
EEG feature extraction procedure. How to rapidly and The data is coming from a set of EEG data set in
reliably extract EEG features is the crucial element for BCI competition 2003 which is provided by Graze
exact classification and translation of mental tasks. University of Technology. It was recorded from a
Recently, a variety of methods has been widely used to normal subject (female, 25years) during a feedback

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 session. The subject sat in a relaxing chair with
armrest. The task was to control a feedback bar by
means of imaginary left or right hand movement. The
experimental is described in detail in [10, 11]. The aim
of signal processing was to distinguish the mental tasks 1 2 3

that imagined left or right hand movement. The

5 cm
experiment consists of 7 runs with 40 trials each. All C3 1 Cz 2 C4 3

runs were conducted on the same day with several

minutes break in between. The order of left and right
cues was random. Given are 280 trials of 9s length.
The first 2s was quiet, at t=2s an acoustic stimulus
indicates the beginning of the trial, the trigger channel
went from low to high, and a cross was display for 1s; (a)
then at t=3s～9s, an arrow (left or right) was displayed
as cue (see Fig.1). At the same time the subject was
asked to move a bar into the direction of the cue. The
feedback was based on AAR parameters which were
combined with a discriminate analysis into one output
parameter. The recording was made using a G.tec
amplifier and a Ag/AgCl electrodes. Three bipolar
EEG channels (anterior ‘+’, posterior‘-’) were 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 sec
measured over C3, Cz, and C4 (see Fig.1). The EEG
was sampled with 128 Hz and it was filtered between Feedback period with Cue

0.5 and 30Hz. To prevent any systematic effect due to Trigger

Beep
the feedback, the training (140 trials) and testing (140
trials) data were randomly selected from 280 trails. (b)
2.2. Power Spectral Entropy Figure1. (a) Electrode position. (b) Timing scheme.

Power spectral entropy is information entropy that is 1) The Discrete Fourier Transform X (ωi ) of signal
able to quantify the spectral complexity of an uncertain
system. It is defined in [12]. For an uncertain system, can be obtained by FFT; where ωi is the frequency
let’s assume a random variable X as states of the point of the number i .
system, the value of X is 2) Calculate its power spectral density (PSD)
1
X = {x1 , x2 ,", xn } Pˆ (ωi ) =
2
(n ≥ 1) (1) X (ωi )
N
The corresponding probability is ˆ
3) Normalize P (ωi ) , and obtain power spectral
P = {p1, p2 ," , pn } 0 ≤ pi ≤ 1 , i = 1,2," , n (2) density distribution function
Under constraints Pˆ (ωi )
pi =
n
∑ Pˆ (ω )
∑ pi = 1
i
(3) i
i =1 4) Use equation (4), the PSE can be worked out.
Therefore, the information entropy of the system can PSE can be interpreted as a measurement of the time
be expressed as uncertainty in frequency domain. In power spectrum of
n EEG signals, when the spectrum peak is narrow, its
H = −∑ pi ln pi (4) entropy value is small. It indicates that the signal has
i =1 an obvious concussive rhythm, that is to say, if wave is
The time-series signals become power spectrum by orderliness, its complexity is small; whereas, the
FFT transform, and the information entropy of power spectrum peak is more smoothness, and its entropy
spectrum is called power spectral entropy. The value is more greatness. Therefore, the PSE can reflect
algorithm can be summarized as: the spectra structure of EEG signals.

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 2.3. Classification
1.25

Assume xk (k = 1,2," , N ) as feature vector of imagined left hand movement

imagined right hand movement
1.2
training data set, in which N1 belongs the sample of

power spectral entropy

imaginary left hand movement, defined as subset χ1 ,
1.15

and in which N 2 belongs the sample of imaginary 1.1

right hand movement, defined as subset χ 2 .The 1.05

individual within-class scatter matrix and the total 1

within-class scatter matrix is defined by
S = ∑ ( x − µ )( x − µ ) i = 1,2
T
(5) 0.95
i i i
x∈χ i 0.9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
S w = S1 + S 2 (6) time(s)
where µ i is the mean vector of the class i . (a)
It can be obtained the transform vector w with 1.24
imagined left hand movement
maximal between-class distance and minimal within- 1.22 imagined right hand movement

class variance by Fisher criterion function and 1.2

power spectral entropy

Lagrange multiplier method: 1.18

w = Sw
−1
(µ1 − µ 2 ) (7) 1.16

Hence, linear transformation can be described as: 1.14

y = w x − 0.5( w, µ1 + w, µ 2
T
) (8) 1.12

1.1
To improve classification accuracy of time t0 , a
1.08
time-variable linear classifier is proposed in this paper 1.06

and in which the information of time t < t0 is used. 1.04

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
The time-variable classifier is defined as: time(s)
D (t0 ) = ∑ ct y (t ) + y (t0 ) (9) (b)
t <t0 Figure2. The time course of power spectral entropy for
imagining left (solid) and right (dashed) hand movements
where ct is a time-variable coefficient. (a) Channel C3 (b) Channel C4
The classification is conducted as follows: 0.9

left hand if D (t0 ) > 0 0.85

D (t0 ) ∈  (10)
right hand if D(t0 ) < 0
0.8
classification accuracy

0.75

3. Results and Discussion

0.7

0.65

This section presents experimental results on the 0.6

EEG data set which was used in the BCI competition 0.55

2003. The result was obtained by using the feature of 0.5

PSE and time-variable linear classifier. 0.45

To gain the time course of feature vector, EEG was
0.4
divided into 1 second segments (128 sample points) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
time(s)
with overlapping data, and the PSE of 8～24Hz for
Figure3. The time course of classification accuracy with
each time segment is calculated with sliding time power spectral entropy for imagining left and right hand
windows stepped by one sample point. Because movements
channel Cz shows its independence of the motor
imagery, only channels C3 and C4 were used for unilateral movement but also movement imaging
feature extraction. It was demonstrated that not only activates primary sensorimotor areas, whereby

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 generally a circumscribed “event-related desynchron- Science Foundation of China (No. 30670529) and the
ization” (ERD) is characteristic for the contralateral, Chunhui Plan of Ministry of Education of China
and an “event-related synchronization” (ERS) for the (Z2005-2-62007)
ipsilateral hemisphere [13]. This fact is a foundation for
distinguish left and right hand movements. References
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This work was supported by the National Natural

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