Time–frequency–space transformer EEG decoding for spinal cord injury

Transformer neural networks based on multi-head self-attention are effective in several fields. To capture brain activity on electroencephalographic (EEG) signals and construct an effective pattern recognition model, this paper explores the multi-channel deep feature decoding method utilizing the self-attention mechanism. By integrating inter-channel features with intra-channel features, the self-attention mechanism generates a deep feature vector that encompasses information from all brain activities. In this paper, a time-frequency-spatial domain analysis of motor imagery (MI) based EEG signals from spinal cord injury patients is performed to construct a transformer neural network-based MI classification model. The proposed algorithm is named time-frequency-spatial transformer. The time-frequency and spatial domain feature vectors extracted from the EEG signals are input into the transformer neural network for multiple self-attention depth feature encoding, a peak classification accuracy of 93.56% is attained through the fully connected layer. By constructing the attention matrix brain network, it can be inferred that the channel connections constructed by the attention heads have similarities to the brain networks constructed by the EEG raw signals. The experimental results reveal that the self-attention coefficient brain network holds significant potential for brain activity analysis. The self-attention coefficient brain network can better illustrate correlated connections and show sample differences. Attention coefficient brain networks can provide a more discriminative approach for analyzing brain activity in clinical settings.