Optimization of transfer learning based on source sample selection in Euclidean space for P300-based brain-computer interfaces.

Introduction: Event-related potentials (ERPs), such as P300, are widely utilized for non-invasive monitoring of brain activity in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) via electroencephalogram (EEG). However, the non-stationary nature of EEG signals and different data distributions among subjects create significant challenges for implementing real-time P300-based BCIs. This requires time-consuming calibration and a large number of training samples. Methods: To address these challenges, this study proposes a transfer learning-based approach that uses a convolutional neural network for high-level feature extraction, followed by Euclidean space data alignment to ensure similar distributions of extracted features. Furthermore, a source selection technique based on the Euclidean distance metric was applied to measure the distance between each source feature sample and a reference point from the target domain. The samples with the lowest distance were then chosen to increase the similarity between source and target datasets. Finally, the transferred features are applied to a discriminative restricted Boltzmann machine classifier for P300 detection. Results: The proposed method was evaluated on the state-of-the-art BCI Competition III dataset II and rapid serial visual presentation dataset. The results demonstrate that the proposed technique achieves an average accuracy of 97% for both online and offline after 15 repetitions, which is comparable to the state-of-the-art methods. Notably, the proposed approach requires <½ of the training samples needed by previous studies. Discussion: Therefore, this technique offers an efficient solution for developing ERP-based BCIs with robust performance against reduced a number of training data.