EEGFuseNet: Hybrid Unsupervised Deep Feature Characterization and Fusion for High-Dimensional EEG with An Application to Emotion Recognition

TL;DR

This paper introduces EEGFuseNet, an unsupervised deep learning model that effectively extracts and fuses spatial and temporal EEG features for emotion recognition, avoiding reliance on labeled data.

Contribution

EEGFuseNet is a novel unsupervised deep convolutional recurrent GAN that characterizes and fuses EEG features, improving cross-subject emotion recognition without labeled training data.

Findings

EEGFuseNet outperforms existing methods in emotion recognition accuracy.

The model is robust, easy to train, and efficient in representing dynamic EEG features.

It enables cross-subject emotion recognition in an unsupervised manner.

Abstract

How to effectively and efficiently extract valid and reliable features from high-dimensional electroencephalography (EEG), particularly how to fuse the spatial and temporal dynamic brain information into a better feature representation, is a critical issue in brain data analysis. Most current EEG studies work in a task driven manner and explore the valid EEG features with a supervised model, which would be limited by the given labels to a great extent. In this paper, we propose a practical hybrid unsupervised deep convolutional recurrent generative adversarial network based EEG feature characterization and fusion model, which is termed as EEGFuseNet. EEGFuseNet is trained in an unsupervised manner, and deep EEG features covering both spatial and temporal dynamics are automatically characterized. Comparing to the existing features, the characterized deep EEG features could be considered to be more generic and independent of any specific EEG task. The performance of the extracted deep and low-dimensional features by EEGFuseNet is carefully evaluated in an unsupervised emotion recognition application based on three public emotion databases. The results demonstrate the proposed EEGFuseNet is a robust and reliable model, which is easy to train and performs efficiently in the representation and fusion of dynamic EEG features. In particular, EEGFuseNet is established as an optimal unsupervised fusion model with promising cross-subject emotion recognition performance. It proves EEGFuseNet is capable of characterizing and fusing deep features that imply comparative cortical dynamic significance corresponding to the changing of different emotion states, and also demonstrates the possibility of realizing EEG based cross-subject emotion recognition in a pure unsupervised manner.