Effect of Feature and Channel Selection on EEG Classification

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the significance of feature and channel selection on EEG classification. The selection process is performed by searching the feature/channel space using genetic algorithm, and evaluating the importance of subsets using a linear support vector machine classifier. Three approaches have been considered: (i) selecting a subset of features that will be used to represent a specified set of channels, (ii) selecting channels that are each represented by a specified set of features, and (iii) selecting individual features from different channels. When applied to a brain-computer interface (BCI) problem, results indicate that improvement in classification accuracy can be achieved by considering the correct combination of channels and features.