Convolutional neural networks for P300 detection with application to brain-computer interfaces

A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a specific type of human-computer interface that enables the direct communication between human and computers by analyzing brain measurements. Oddball paradigms are used in BCI to generate event-related potentials (ERPs), like the P300 wave, on targets selected by the user. A P300 speller is based on this principle, where the detection of P300 waves allows the user to write characters. The P300 speller is composed of two classification problems. The first classification is to detect the presence of a P300 in the electroencephalogram (EEG). The second one corresponds to the combination of different P300 responses for determining the right character to spell. A new method for the detection of P300 waves is presented. This model is based on a convolutional neural network (CNN). The topology of the network is adapted to the detection of P300 waves in the time domain. Seven classifiers based on the CNN are proposed: four single classifiers with different features set and three multiclassifiers. These models are tested and compared on the Data set II of the third BCI competition. The best result is obtained with a multiclassifier solution with a recognition rate of 95.5 percent, without channel selection before the classification. The proposed approach provides also a new way for analyzing brain activities due to the receptive field of the CNN models.