Electrode channel optimisation method for steady-state visual evoked potentials

This article proposes an electrode channel combination method for optimisation steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) towards a high-performance brain-computer interface (BCI). In SSVEP-based BCIs, the channels which lie in the area near the occipital and parietal lobes are always selected to improve the classification accuracy. Although the electrode channels which are selected in occipital and parietal lobes have significantly improved the accuracy and reduced the calculating time of algorithm, the effect of electrode channel combination for each subject have not been systematically explored. This study conducts a comparison of BCI performance between two subjects in different electrode channel combinations. The results show significant difference between two subjects when selecting different electrode channel combinations using unsupervised target identification methods. The results suggest that different electrode channels should be selected for different subjects in SSVEP-based BCIs.