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Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 1: Introduction
The human cerebral cortex consists of brain and has a tremendous and prosperous
spatio-temporal dynamics which are particularly unique to the human beings only.
Millions of neuron in the brain communicate to one another through chemical and
"impulse" for the action potential and is defined as transient discharge (Figure
1.1).
Action Refractory
potential Period
50
Depolarization Repolarization
0
Membrane Threshold potential
Potential
(mV)
-50 Resting Potential
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Time (milliseconds)
Figure 1.1: Action Potential produced in a Neuron
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(Refractory period) and return to Resting potential are the 5 phases of AP.
Threshold potentials are essential to control and spread out the signals in the
occurs within a nerve cell when the neuron undergoes an electrical change.
phase has returned to a negative value just following the depolarization stage. It
finally returns to resting membrane potential. Since the AP travels through the
axon and brings out changes across the membrane (Polarity changes). Other
neurons are stimulated when the signal reaches the axon terminal.
The abnormal electrical disturbance is called a seizure. Epilepsy causes when the
repeated seizure occurs in the brain. The cortex is partitioned into “lobes” namely
frontalpole, frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital. The symptoms and the
of seizures are mainly grouped into two classes, namely partial and generalized.
When the seizure spreads into two or more areas of the brain, it is called
generalized seizures, whereas partial seizure affects the separate area of the brain.
Tonic, Clonic, Tonic-Clonic, Atonic, Myoclonic and Absence seizures are called
generalized seizures. The electrical signals from the brain can be measured
electrodes placed on the scalp. The scalp EEG is generally useful in clinical
are used as good conductors of electrical potentials. For better contact, the
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conducting paste which covers the skin acts as an interface between scalp and
electrode. It conducts electrical potentials from the person to the EEG machine.
called montage. There are 2116 or 1.43*1021 possible montages available with 21
electrodes and 16 channels. From the montage selector, the EEG signal goes to the
amplifier. The EEG amplifiers are compound devices which contain filters,
voltage dividers, input and output jacks and calibration devices. Montages can be
classified into referential (Monopolar) and bipolar. The difference between the
Amplification by
EEG machine
Electrode 1
Electrode 2
EEG Recordings
Gnd
Fp1
F3
Fp1-F3Channel
Bipolar Derivation
of single channel
(IFSECN) has approved the system which is called 10-20 system of electrode
placement. This system is used for different skull size and shape to have standard
measurements. Figure 1.3 shows the array of electrodes in 10-20 system. At this
point, electrodes are placed at 20% spacing along standard lines of measurement
and electrodes at 10% positions in standard coronal lines [21]. The position of
electrode is designated in terms of 5 lobes namely the frontalpole (Fp), frontal (F),
central (C), parietal (P) and occipital (O). These lobes are marked based on the
distance connecting between the nasion and inion over the vertex. For better and
meaningful communication, the right side of the scalp is recognized with EVEN
numbered electrodes and left side by ODD numbered electrodes. The midline
These electrodes are plugged to head box or jack box through multiway input
cables. For perfect EEG recording and reporting, EEG machine uses filters to
remove unwanted signals that are produced by mechanical and biological reasons.
The noise level at high frequency filter setting at 70Hz should not exceed 2µV.
causes upward movement of the eyeball and creates positive potentials in frontal
leads. Repetitive blinking may produce rhythmic slow waves. These artifacts can
be removed by holding the patient’s eyes in the closed position [33]. The patient
should be relaxed during recording. The low frequency filter of 0.1 Hz and high
frequency filter of 70 Hz are used during EEG recording. The output from this
analog processing sequence goes into the analog multiplexer and further into
Figure 1.4 shows that the initial measurement starts from Fp. It is 10% of nasion -
inion distance from the nasion. The second measurement F is 20% of distance that
follows the initial point (Fp). Similarly the measurements are carried out by taking
20% of steps back from central, parietal and occipital midline points. The
midpoint of nasion and inion is central. Figure 1.5 shows that lateral
measurements. These are based on central coronal plain. Here the electrode
measurements are taken from left to right. The temporal point (T) is 10% of
distance from the pre auricular point on either side. Rest of the points from central
Careful analysis of EEG provides valuable information about the brain functions
frequencies, amplitude and spatial distribution. The types of EEG waves are
• Theta: 4-7.5Hz
• Alpha: 8-13Hz
• Beta: 14-40Hz
The voltage of the EEG signal determines its amplitude and is measured peak to
the electrical activity of the cerebral cortex by the electrodes which are placed
directly on the surface of the brain. Its amplitude ranges between 500 and
1500µV. An EEG wave depends upon age, consciousness and many other
frequency range. The EEG may show unusual electrical discharge when some
abnormality occurs in the brain. EEG test is essential for diagnosing epilepsy
[33].
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New research proves that machine is capable of learning from data just like a
human brain acquires knowledge through study and facts. Data mining and
machine learning are different fields of study. The data mining explores the
unstructured data from the very large database and extracts knowledge to predict
the unknown pattern, whereas machine learning feeds the knowledge to equip the
reinforcement learning are different types of learning techniques used for data
The main function of supervised learning is to classify the data patterns [25].
Categorical labels are assigned to the data so that the system can learn efficiently
to differentiate them. Machine learning carries out a particular task to classify the
data in two stages. Training stage is the first stage where the machine is trained
with the appropriate features and the corresponding categorical labels of the data.
While in testing stage, the machine has to examine the unknown data of similar
features which is not familiar with the machine. The classifier has to classify the
calculated by the percentage of the test data that are accurately classified by the
that can take decisions based on the inputs [53] [24]. The exact reason to develop
an expert system is to solve a particular problem, just like a human expert. The
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system extracts knowledge from an expert and encodes by using the appropriate
learning plays the major role in an expert system in such a way it creates a system
Epilepsy is the abnormal disorder of the brain. People with this disorder suffer
from various causes like fear, misunderstanding and loss of self confidence. The
stigma and discrimination. Epilepsy forces people into darkness and they suffer
misery in their lives. The intention of this EEG signal analysis is performed to
more qualitatively. For this, the EEG analysis has to develop a system which will
be able to distinguish the normal and seizure EEG signal features efficiently. To
differentiate the EEG pattern, this study focuses on machine learning algorithms.
classification, the analysis has been carried out in different perspectives: 1) EEG
decomposition, EEG signals are decomposed in the frequency domain. The main
purpose of this research is to find out appropriate features that should be provided
for the machine to have better performance. Choosing the appropriate classifier is
So the research is meant to extract suitable features from EEG signal and tested
with different classifiers to distinguish the EEG signals. Developing a system with
appropriate features and classifier will be supportive and helpful for clinical
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characteristics of the EEG signals. The Bonn University, Germany database [4] is
downloaded for analyzing the EEG signal characteristics for the purpose of this
research. The information on this database is given in the Table 1.1. The segments
reference with 128-channel amplifier most of the EEG signals were measured.
Datasets Description
Set A EEG data recorded using a 10-20 system when the healthy persons
were resting in the eyes open relaxation state with surface electrode
type.
Set B Using the same circumstance, EEG data recorded when the healthy
persons were resting with the eyes closed relaxation state with surface
electrode type.
Set C EEG data recorded opposite the epileptogenic zone of electrode placement
when the persons were in Interictal state (seizure free intervals)
Set D EEG data recorded within the epileptogenic zone of electrode placement
when the persons were in Interictal state (seizure free intervals)
Set E EEG data recorded within the epileptogenic zone of electrode placement
when the persons were in Ictal state (merely seizure state)
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The data dimensions were digitized using 12 bit A/D resolution at 173.61 Hz
sampling rate. Datasets A and E were taken in this analysis for the binary
classification. The sample from a single subject of EEG signals from each set (A-
E) is shown in the following Figure 1.6. The second database was collected from
Sanjeevi EEG diagnostic centre, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. EEG test had
been taken for 100 normal and 100 abnormal (only seizure) subjects in bipolar
longitudinal EEG 16 channels (Fp2-F4, F4-C4, C4-P4, P4-O2, Fp2-F8, F8-T4, T4-T6,
T6-O2, Fp1-F3, F3-C3, C3-P3, P3-O1, Fp1-F7, F7-T3, T3-T5, T5-O1) by using 10-20
system with silver or silver chloride electrodes. The recorded page on a standard
EEG acquisition was digitized with band pass filter settings of 0.53-60Hz. Since
temporal lobe is the commonest epileptogenic area, the two channels (F8-T4 and
F7-T3) has been observed for EEG signal classification process. Temporal lobe
epilepsy is common in older adolescents, young adults and middle aged persons.
The classical interictal EEG manifestations are randomly firing anterior temporal
Each sample has been taken from temporal lobe channel is digitized to 5120
vectors. The sample subjects from this database have shown in the following
0
-200
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Normal subject when eyes closed
500
Set B
0
-500
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Abnormal Subject only seizure
2000
Set E
0
-2000
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Abnormal subject at seizure free intervals
500
Set C
0
-500
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Abnormal Subject in the epileptogenic zone
200
Set D
0
-200
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Electrical activity from different montages
Temporal NormalEEG
20
Amplitude
0
-20
-40
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Temporal AbnormalEEG
50
Amplitude
-50
-100
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
EEG Vectors
Normal subject
100
50
Amplitude
-50
-100
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
4
x 10
Abnormal subject
200
100
Amplitude
-100
-200
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
EEG vectors 4
x 10
Epilepsy occurs when the repeated seizures take place in the brain. EEG is a useful
test for measuring the electrical activity and diagnosing epilepsy [41] [57].
by visual scanning of EEG recordings [5]. Though experts can diagnose the disease
efficiently, pointing out the quantitative value becomes difficult. Hence the
Supportive system for epileptic seizure diagnosis is used in order to have better
the most important process. The purpose of computerized EEG analysis has
machine learning algorithms is the main aim of this research. Particularly the ANN
and SVM methods have used efficiently to create an expert system which is called
machine has to learn, detect and classify the EEG signal patterns into appropriate
classes. Here 4 stages have been identified in the EEG signal classification
problem they are, preprocessing the EEG signal, Extraction of features, selection
of appropriate features and classification. The workflow diagram has been depicted
in Figure 1.9. The EEG signals can provide information about the brain activities.
These signals are categorized by various frequencies. The normal and abnormality
of brain activity can be identified through the nature of the EEG signals.
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Classification
Digitized Results
1101000010000101 EEG Data
EEG Recordings
10-20 system
Usually, the lower frequencies (delta and theta) exhibit the abnormality of brain
events. Artifacts (Noises) in EEG recordings which are not epileptic might be
the noise with simple filtering technique would lead to information loss. Many
filtering techniques have chosen to remove the noise in EEG signal. The existing
filtering and discrete wavelet transform can only eliminate either EOG signal or
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EMG signal. In this work, signal decomposition methods have been applied to
EEG signals. Since EEG signals are non-stationary, these signals are analyzed
EEG signal data, feature extraction in a unique form has been used in machine
feature selection as the most significant task in pattern analysis. Duda et al, 2001
[11] had identified the appropriate feature extraction process which could improve
deviation, skewness and kurtosis, the basic and standard statistical features can be
easily extracted from the signals. Apart from these, features can be extracted
Analysis (PCA) etc. The next step for automated seizure detection [17] is the
feature selection process. This is an important step for classification [14]. It is the
best method to feed the selected features for getting the optimum result. Redundant
features might cause difficulties with the system and can obstruct the optimum
the system and makes it to be a robust system [60] [54]. Thus leaving irrelevant
features and learning only with suitable features provide less complexity. The final
For EEG data analysis, normal EEG signals are assigned as ‘-1’ and seizure signals
are categorized as ‘+1’. The classifiers has to organize the categorical labels. The
machine learns in two stages. On training stage, the system has been skilled with
EEG data and their related class labels. In testing stage, the system is examined
with the unknown data for the EEG signal classification. The system performance
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is computed through the accuracy of unknown data which has been exactly
the database elaborately defines and the procedure for seizure detection is also
explained in the above statement. Here 21 features are extracted from EEG for
classification process. They are listed as follows in the Table 1.2. Each feature is
In the first study, the system is designed by using GLCM features and ANN
method for classification. EEG signals are analyzed in the spatial domain and
The ANN classifier with back propagation algorithm is used in this analysis for
seizure detection. The 80% of 200 samples from the EEG database is used for
training phase and 20% for the testing phase. The ANN classifier’s performance is
computed through confusion matrix. The ANN classifies the nature of normal
EEG and seizure EEG signals with 85% accuracy. The objective of this study is to
introduce GLCM features for classification using ANN classifier. In the second
analysis, the extracted GLCM features act as input for the SVM classifier. This
spatial domain and comparing the machine learning algorithms such as ANN and
SVM are the main objective of this work. The performance accuracy has obtained
by the SVM classifier for the EEG signal classification which is found to be
higher than ANN classifier. Hence the SVM method has been chosen for further
research.
In the third analysis, the EEG signal from each normal and seizure subjects is
divided into four equal segments. Comparison of different SVM kernels is mainly
focused on this study. The 8 statistical features (SF1 to SF8) and the 4 GLCM
features (GF1 to GF4) are extracted from each segment of the EEG signal. These
extracted features are analyzed and classified using two different SVM kernels.
The Linear and Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernels are utilized with SVM
classifier. The parameter sigma in RBF kernel is tuned to the value two and
compared with the default sigma value one. It appears that the accuracy is higher
in classification when the sigma value is tuned. The system performance using
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SVM kernels is compared and concluded suitable kernel for the binary
classification. The system achieves 99.95% accuracy while using linear kernel,
98.6% (RBF kernel) and 99.59% (turned RBF) with the SVM classifier. In the
fourth analysis, the EEG signals are decomposed at level 3 through different
wavelets namely Daubechies (db1, db2) and haar. This study analyzes the EEG
signal in the frequency domain. Here GLCM and statistical are combined and it
would feed as input to the SVM classifier. The binary classification process has
been carried out by using GLCM, statistical and hybrid features for the EEG
signal as well as its sub bands. Here EEG signal analysis in the frequency domain
using db2 wavelet with hybrid features in the SVM classifier yields 92.16%
accuracy.
The EEG signals are decomposed using db2 wavelet at level 4 in the fifth
Shannon, Renyi and Tsallis entropy. Further the entropy values are used as the
authenticate the inputs. The study has been analyzed by changing the order of
entropy. The relationship between normal and seizure groups in EEG signal
analysis confirms that normal and seizure sets are having different mean values.
The innovative idea of this observation is to find out the suitable entropy estimator
for the EEG signal classification. For automated seizure detection the entropy
measurements which are carried out from the EEG signals and its sub bands have
combined as the input to the SVM classifier. The analysis concludes that accuracy
rate (100%) using Renyi entropy estimation is suitable for the EEG signal
classification. In the final work, an automated seizure detection model has been
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introduced successfully. The EEG signals are decomposed into different range of
frequencies by DWT using db2 wavelet. The eight statistical features (SF1-SF8),
the four GLCM features (GF1-GF4) and Renyi entropy estimation with four
different degrees of order (ERF1-ERF4) are extracted from the EEG and its
relevant features from 16 dimension features. The model has been trained and
tested by using the SVM classifier. Finally the model has been validated through
the real time data effectively and achieved 90% performance accuracy.
The major contributions of this thesis in view of the existing work are as follows:
1) Two different machine learning algorithms (ANN and SVM) which are based
2) In comparison with existing works, the significance of this research is that the
unique sets of features have been used for EEG signal classification
waveform (delta and theta) for EEG signal analysis. The time complexity
(testing time: 0.02 seconds) is less in this analysis. The testing time would be
perform the research work on EEG signal analysis. In Chapter 3, the first, second
and third analysis of the research are coined (GLCM features with ANN and
SVM classifier and EEG Signal segmentation with SVM classifier). In Chapter 4,
with SVM classifier). In Chapter 6, the final analysis of the research is defined
this research and ideas for future work are described in Chapter 7.