An EEG-fNIRS hybridization technique in the four-class classification of alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is projected to become one of the most expensive diseases in modern history, and yet diagnostic uncertainties exist that can only be confirmed by postmortem brain examination. Machine Learning (ML) algorithms have been proposed as a feasible alternative to the diagnosis of several neurological diseases and disorders, such as AD. An ideal ML-derived diagnosis should be inexpensive and noninvasive while retaining the accuracy and versatility that make ML techniques desirable for medical applications.

Two portable modalities, Electroencephalography (EEG) and functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) have been widely employed in constructing hybrid classification models to compensate for each other's weaknesses. In this study, we present a hybrid EEG-fNIRS model for classifying four classes of subjects including one healthy control (HC) group, one mild cognitive impairment (MCI) group, and, two AD patient groups. A concurrent EEG-fNIRS setup was used to record data from 29 subjects during a random digit encoding-retrieval task. EEG-derived and fNIRS-derived features were sorted using a Pearson correlation coefficient-based feature selection (PCCFS) strategy and then fed into a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) classifier to evaluate their performance.

The hybrid EEG-fNIRS feature set was able to achieve a higher accuracy (79.31 %) by integrating their complementary properties, compared to using EEG (65.52 %) or fNIRS alone (58.62 %). Moreover, our results indicate that the right prefrontal and left parietal regions are associated with the progression of AD.

Our hybrid and portable system provided enhanced classification performance in multi-class classification of AD population.

These findings suggest that hybrid EEG-fNIRS systems are a promising tool that may enhance the AD diagnosis and assessment process.