A Multi-Level Integrated EEG-Channel Selection Method Based on the Lateralization Index

The importance of optimizing channel selection for portable brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is increasingly recognized. Effective channel selection reduces computational load and enhances user experience by making BCI systems more comfortable and easier to use. A significant challenge lies in reducing the number of electrodes without compromising decoding accuracy. Although some methods have been proposed in previous studies, these often increase computational load and overlook the importance of channel selection across different subjects. Therefore, we propose a novel Multi-level Integrated EEG-Channel Selection method based on the Lateralization Index (MLI-ECS-LI). This method leverages the lateralization index in selecting important channels and can achieve the channel selection for the cross-tasks and the cross-subjects scenarios. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, the time and frequency domain features from selected channels were extracted. Three widely used classifiers, Least Squares Support Vector Machine (LSSVM), Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were used to classify movement types based on these features. Compared to the conventional condition (C1-C6), the average decoding accuracies across 21 healthy subjects demonstrated an improved performance of 6.6%, 4.9%, 6.9% (LSSVM); 3.8%, 2.8%, 4.5%(RF); and 7.6%, 5.6%, 9.2%(SVM) via using the channels selected from the conditions of the single task, the cross-tasks, and the cross-subjects scenarios, respectively. These results demonstrated the potential of the proposed method in improving the utility of the portable Motor Imagery Brain-Computer Interface (MI-BCI) and effectiveness in practical applications.