Decoding Pain: A Comprehensive Review of Computational Intelligence Methods in Electroencephalography-Based Brain-Computer Interfaces.

Objective pain evaluation is crucial for determining appropriate treatment strategies in clinical settings. Studies have demonstrated the potential of using brain-computer interface (BCI) technology for pain classification and detection. Collating knowledge and insights from prior studies, this review explores the extensive work on pain detection based on electroencephalography (EEG) signals. It presents the findings, methodologies, and advancements reported in 20 peer-reviewed articles that utilize machine learning and deep learning (DL) approaches for EEG-based pain detection. We analyze various ML and DL techniques, support vector machines, random forests, k-nearest neighbors, and convolution neural network recurrent neural networks and transformers, and their effectiveness in decoding pain neural signals. The motivation for combining AI with BCI technology lies in the potential for significant advancements in the real-time responsiveness and adaptability of these systems. We reveal that DL techniques effectively analyze EEG signals and recognize pain-related patterns. Moreover, we discuss advancements and challenges associated with EEG-based pain detection, focusing on BCI applications in clinical settings and functional requirements for effective pain classification systems. By evaluating the current research landscape, we identify gaps and opportunities for future research to provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners.