ELSEVIER

Electroencephalographyand clinical Neurophysiology 99 (1996) 416-425

On-line EEG classification during externally-paced hand movements

using a neural network-based classifier
G. Pfurtscheller*, J. Kalcher, Ch. Neuper, D. Flotzinger, M. Pregenzer
Ludwig Boltzmann-lnstitute of Medical lnformatics and Neuroinformatics and Department of Medical lnformatics,
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Technology, Brockmanngasse 41, A-8010 Graz, Austria

Accepted for publication: 29 April 1996

Abstract
EEGs of 6 normal subjects were recorded during sequences of periodic left or right hand movement. Left or right was indicated by a
visual cue. The question posed was: 'Is it possible to move a cursor on a monitor to the right or left side using the EEG signals for cursor
control?' For this purpose the EEG during performance of hand movement was analyzed and classified on-line. A neural network in
form of a learning vector quantizertion (EVQ) with an input dimension of 16 was trained to classify EEG patterns from two electrodes
and two time windows. After two training sessions on 2 different days, 4 subjects showed a classification accuracy of 89-100%. For two
subjects classification was not possible. These results show that in general movement specific EEG-pattems can be found, classified in
real time and used to move a cursor on a monitor to the left or right. On-line EEG classification is necessary when the EEG is used as
input signal to a brain computer interface (BCI). Such a BCI can be a help for handicapped people.
Keywords: Neural networks; Movement; Event-related desynchronization; Post-movement beta synchronization; Brain computer interface

1. Introduction
On-line EEG classification is a prerequisite for the construction of an EEG-based brain computer interface (BCI).
Such a BCI is a communication system which classifies
different EEG patterns in real time and produces a control
signal depending on the classification result (Farwell and
Donchin, 1988; W o l p a w et al., 1991; McFarland et al.,
1993; Pfurtscheller et al., 1993; W o l p a w and McFarland,
1994). EEG patterns such as those generated in sensorimotor areas can be modified either by preparation for and
execution of movement (Chatrian et al., 1959; Pfurtscheller and Berghold, 1989) or by imagination thereof (Wolpaw and McFarland, 1994). The latter is useful to patients
with severe motor impairment as a new communication
channel. Although ultimately only mental activity (i.e.
without a motor act) should be transformed into control
signals, it is an important intermediate step to investigate
the possibility of using EEG signals recorded before and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +43 316 8735311; fax: +43 316 812964.

during hand movement for on-line cursor control. If such

control is possible, execution of movement could be
replaced by imagination of movement in a further step.
It is well known that hemispheric EEG differences exist
between left and right hand movement in the preparatory
phase prior to movement (Chatrian et al., 1959; Pfurtscheller and Berghold, 1989; Derambure et al., 1993) and after
movement (Pfurtscheller et al., 1996b). During movement
the EEG displays a bilateral desynchronization pattern. In
the pre-movement period, mu and beta event-related
desynchronization (ERD) are of contralateral dominance
and after movement the post-movement beta synchronization is mainly localized contralaterally. This knowledge
can be used for a BCI by designing an EEG pattern classifier which analyzes the current EEG pattern in real time
and produces a control signal.
Up to now different experiments have been designed, all
based on on-line classification of single EEG patterns. The
principle of these experiments is that a visually presented
target indicates the type of movement which should be
executed or imagined 1 s later. The E E G recorded for

0013-4694/96/$15.00 1996 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

PII S0921-884X(96)95689-1

EEG 95689

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G. Pfurtscheller et al. / Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology 99 (1996) 416-425

Table 1
Selected time windows (I1, 12) and frequency bands used for on-line
classifications

D2
B9
D1
D8
A5
D5

Interval 1 (s) Band 1 (Hz)

Interval 2 (s) Band 2 (Hz)

-1.5/-0.5
-2.5/-1.5
-2.0/-1.0
-1.0/0.0
-1.5/-0.5
-2.0/-1.0

-0.5/+0.5
-0.5/+0.5
0.0/+1.0
-0.5/+0.5
-1.0/0.0

12-15
8-14
14-18
16-20
12-16
18-24

16-24
16-20
12-14
12-16
18-24

The time windows are indicated in relation to the presentation of the

beep (beep presentation at 0.0 s). In subject B9, due to technical problems only one frequency bzaad and one interval were used for on-line
analysis.

the 1 s period following the presentation of the target was

used for classification. The interval between two target
presentations (time segments used for classification) was
at least 6 s. The best classification result for distinction of
two different movement-related EEG patterns was 87%
(Pfurtscheller et al., 1993); the best classification result
for distinction of 3 mevement-related EEG patterns was
approximately 60% (Kalcher et al., 1996). These experiments have shown that single EEG trials can be classified
on-line, but classification accuracy is clearly below 100%,
especially in the 3-classes experiment.
This paper mainly addresses the following questions. (i)
Can classification accuracy be increased (up to 100%) by
cumulative classification of consecutive movementrelated EEG patterns? (ii) Which EEG-frequency components are most appropriate for on-line EEG classification?
2. Method and materials

2.1. Subjects
Six subjects (two females, 4 males, 22-28 years old)
served as volunteers. All were students and reported no
history of neurological disorders or use of medication.

2.2. Experimental paradigm

The subjects sat in a reclining chair looking at a fixation
cross displayed at the center of a monitor placed 100 cm
before them. This cross appeared at the beginning of each
trial (second 0 in Fig. 1). The task was to make brisk wrist
flexions and extensions with the left or the right hand
depending on the target presented. The target was presented 2 s after the beginning of each trial, consisted of
an arrow pointing either left or right and was displayed at
the left/right edge of the fixation cross. The target then
remained on the screen. Three seconds after the target
presentation (second 5 in Fig. 1) the first acoustical stimulus (beep) out of a serie;s of 4 - 7 beeps was presented. The
inter-beep interval was 3 s. The subject was asked to perform the requested type of hand movement after each

beep. In the first training sessions no feedback was

given. The number of beep presentations per trial (4-7),
as well as the type of target (direction of the arrow), were
chosen randomly to ensure that the subject concentrated on
the task. Two training sessions (X1, X2) on different days
were used to record movement-specific EEG patterns of
each subject.
In the final test session (X3) the subjects had to perform
the same task as in the training sessions, but the EEG was
classified on-line and feedback was given. Thus, the number of beeps per trial was dependent on the on-line classification performance only. Feedback consisted of a jump
of the fixation cross plus arrow into the classified direction
and indicated the end of the trial.

2.3. EEG recording

Two EEG channels were recorded using electrode positions C3 and C4 (according to the international 10-20
system) with a common frontal reference (Fz). The EEG
was amplified, bandpass filtered between 0.5 and 30 Hz
(slope 20 dB/decade) and then sampled at 64 Hz.

2.4. Off-line processing (training sessions)

The EEG data from each target group (left and right
movement) were subject to ERD analysis using averaging
techniques. From the raw EEG data, event-related trials
were formed with a total epoch length of 15 s, extending
from 5 s before the first beep to 1 s after the 4th beep,
independent of the total number of beeps presented. After
bandpass filtering of each trial, squaring of the samples and
averaging over trials, the variance was reduced by averaging 8 consecutive power values. By this procedure the
sample rate was reduced from 64 amplitude samples to 8
power values per second. In order to obtain percentage
ERD values, the 1 s period before the presentation of the
target was defined as reference interval (marked with ' R '
in Fig. 1) and normalized percentage changes of power
Target

"lefthand"

Feedback

1st beep
presentationl
I

V y \/
q

R Reference

period

2nd beep

3 sec
V

movement

Fig. 1. Timing of the movement experiment with time of target, beep and
feedback presentation; in addition, the reference period used for ERD
computation (R) is indicated.

418

G. Pfurtscheller et al. / Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology 99 (1996) 416-425

were determined with a time resolution of 125 ms. Such

band power time courses were calculated in the following
frequency bands: 8-10, 10-12, 16-20 and 20-24 Hz. The
various ERD courses from experiment X2 were visually
checked and a first 1 s time window (I1) was selected
according to the most significant power decrease in one
or more of the selected frequency bands after the 3rd beep.
The statistical significance of the band power changes was
determined using the sign test (Pfurtscheller and Berghold,
1989). Another 1 s time window (I2) was selected from the
same ERD time courses according to the most significant
power increase around the 4th beep. For this selection
procedure only time windows starting at full or half seconds were chosen for each subject (see Table 1).
2.5. Selection of frequency components

For the selection of the optimal frequency bands in both

preselected time windows, the distinction sensitive learning vector quantization algorithm (DSLVQ; Pregenzer et
al., 1994; Pregenzer et al., 1996) was used. DSLVQ is an
improved learning vector quantization (LVQ; Kohonen,
1990) algorithm. Flotzinger et al. (1994) showed the suitability of LVQ for on-line EEG classification. One major
shortcoming of standard LVQ is that all the features of the
input data are treated equally. DSLVQ performs a scaling
transformation to adapt the influence of different features:
the influence of relevant input features is increased while
non-informative features are discarded. The informative
value of a feature is approximated with learning. A
weights vector w = (wl,w2 ..... wn) is updated with every
learning iteration: the weight value wi is increased if the
feature i contributes to a correct classification and
decreased if it is involved in a misclassification. The
change depends on the clearness of the contribution and
also on the number of comparable features: the smaller the
number of correctly classified features, the stronger is the
emphasis on these features. Classification is based on a
weighted vector distance function where single-feature
sub-distances are weighted with w:
dist(x, y, w) =

"=

(wi[xi-Yi])

components in different time windows, must be preselected for subsequent experiments.

DSLVQ was used with 8 codebook vectors (4 per class)
which were initialized with k-means clustering. The learning rate was initialized with 0.05 and monotonically
decreasing to zero during the learning process (10000
iterations). The feature vectors for the DSLVQ algorithm
consisted of 18 frequency components (7-24 Hz; this band
was chosen because the largest movement-specific reactivity is expected in the alpha and beta band) which were
obtained from a discrete Fourier transform (FFF) of the
EEG signals in the 1 s windows I1 and I2 (the time windows I1 and I2 were taken from all beep-movement
sequences). Due to the small number of training examples
for each of the sessions, the two time windows (I 1, I2) had
to be analyzed separately. Ten-fold cross validation was
used for the DSLVQ experiments: only 90% of the data
were used for training while 10% were kept back for testing. The testing set was permutated such that after 100
runs each example was used exactly 10 times for testing.
The
1 s window selection was based on the classification
results: if the performance was bad in one window, but
good in the other window, only the good window was
taken. If the performance was comparable in the two windows, both were taken. A threshold of 57% (arbitrarily
chosen) was used. A performance >57% was assumed
to be good.
The DSLVQ weight values showed that neighboring
frequency components are often similarly important. The
interpretation of this is that the relevant frequency bands
are broader than 1 Hz. Nevertheless, a resolution of 1 Hz
frequency components seems necessary to obtain exact
cut-off frequencies for an optimal band-pass filtering.
From the DSLVQ weight values, one or two frequency
bands were selected which were then used for the bandpass
filter in the on-line experiments. The feature selection is
compared for two different training sessions. When the
selected frequency bands were not identical in these sessions, a broader band including the relevant bands of both
sessions was chosen.

(1)
2.6. On-line artifact detection

The trained weights vector w gives an insight into the

LVQ classifier: it shows which features and feature combinations are important for classification. The weights
can, therefore, also be utilized for data analysis. A
major advantage of this method is that it is based on single
examples. Examples of the same class may belong to
different sub-classes or clusters. Unlike averaging techniques, where relevant information is lost with combination
of examples from different clusters, this method can consider any number of sub-classes. Furthermore, it shows
relevant feature combinations rather than informative
single features. This is very important when a smaller
number of optimal features, such as certain frequency

To exclude trials with artifacts (e.g. muscle activity or

eye movement) from on-line classification, an online artifact detection mechanism has been incorporated into the
system. This mechanism is based on calculation of 1 s FFT
power spectra and analysis of the relative power in two
frequency bands: (i) 1-6 Hz to detect slow EEG changes
due to eye movement and (ii) 25-31 Hz for muscle activity detection. Each time interval used for classification is
checked in these two frequency bands before being passed
on to the classifier. The result of the on-line artifact detection is stored on disk for further evaluation.
The thresholds used to distinguish between normal EEG

419

G. Pfurtscheller et al. / Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology 99 (1996) 416-425

activity and artifacts are determined separately for each
subject from session X1 by calculating the mean and SD
in both frequency bands. The threshold is defined by the
mean plus one SD: trials with relative band powers in the
1-6 Hz band and/or in the 25-31 Hz band higher than the
threshold are excluded as artifacts.
2.7. On-line classification (test session)
After digital ban@ass filtering (FIR filter) of the EEG
data in the subject-specific frequency bands, 4 time
domain power estimates (each representing 250 ms)
were determined. This was done for both frequency
bands in the selected 1 s time windows (see Table 1) and
the resulting two 8-dimensional vectors were concatenated
and used as input for the LVQ.
The individual classifications of each example (i.e. of
the concatenated data of the two time intervals following
each beep) were based on a quality measure provided by a
modified LVQ : +2 for very clear, +1 for clear decision (the
sign was positive for correct decision and negative for
incorrect decision of the classifier) and 0 for an unclear
decision made by the LVQ (Flotzinger, 1994). These
values were summed up within each trial and, once the
absolute of this value exceeded a threshold of 3, the trial
was terminated by a feedback in the form of a jump of the
cross plus arrow from the center to the corresponding edge
of the monitor. If the cumulative classifications exceeded
+3, the trial was declared 'correct' and the cross plus arrow
jumped in the indicated direction, otherwise (classification
smaller than -3) the trial was declared 'erroneous' and the
jump occurred in the opposite direction.
To visualize the pertormance of each on-line session,
the classifier output is p~resented in form of a diagram. For
a graphical display of the output data, one session is
divided into 3 blocks, with each block consisting of 21
trials. The x-axis displays the number of classifications
(one classification per hand movement), with the number
of classification per trial[ being variable and dependent on
how fast the threshold was reached. A correct decision of
the classifier increases the value on the y-axis and an incorrect decision results in a decrease. After 21 trials the cumulative classifier value is reset to zero.

3. Results
3.1. Time windows and frequency components
The 1 s time windows selected for classifcation are
summarized in Table 1. Table 2 shows the average classification accuracy of DSLVQ for different subjects, sessions and both time windows. The average classification
performance was used to compare different feature sets
and sessions. An average classification accuracy close to
50% indicated that no feature combination was found
which could be used for reliable classification. Only data

from time windows with an average classification accuracy >57% (this threshold was chosen arbitrarily) were
used for frequency component selection.
Examples of the DSLVQ weight values for all 6 subjects
are presented in Fig. 2 for time window I1 and in Fig. 3 for
time window 12. The results of two training sessions X1
and X2, and for comparison also of the results of test
session X3, are superimposed. It can be seen that for subject D2, the optimal frequency band is strongly dependent
on the time window. Classification accuracies of the single
examples were extremely high in both training sessions
(between 66% and 77%; see also Table 2). The figures
show that the most relevant frequency components are at
13 Hz for the first and at 19 Hz for the second window.
Therefore, the bands for the online experiment were determined as 12-15 and 16-24 Hz.
Subject A5 showed a clear peak centered around 13 Hz
in both time windows and both sessions. In addition, the
classification accuracies (in all cases) were between 58%
and 78%. According to these results, the 12-16 Hz band
was selected. For subject D5, the frequency band 18-24
Hz was chosen from time window 1 and used for both time
windows (the classification accuracy of time window 2
was 54% and 45%, respectively).
The inspection of the DSLVQ weights of subject D8 in
Figs. 2 and 3 revealed no consistent behavior over the
frequency components of sessions X1 and X2, although
the classification averages in session X2 were 60% and
67%. Thus for subject D8, and also for subjects B9 and
D1, both with poor classification results (see Table 2), the
selection of the relevant frequency band for on-line analysis was done by inspection of average ERD time courses
from both training sessions X1 and X2 (in addition to the
standard frequency bands, the 8 - 14, 12-14 and 14-18 Hz
bands were chosen for ERD calculations). Table 1 summarizes the frequency bands which have been selected for
each of the subjects for on-line control.
3.2. ERD time courses
Fig. 4 displays examples of ERD time courses in the
frequency bands which were finally selected for three subjects (D2, D1, A5) during left hand movement. From these
Table 2
Average classification accuracies of data vectors based on 18 frequency
components (7-24 Hz) for both 1 s time windows (I1, I2), 3 sessions
(X1, X2, X3) and 6 subjects

D2
B9
D1
D8
A5
D5

X1 I1

X1 I2

X2 I1

X2 12

X3 I1

X3 12

77
54
56
53
69
67

66
60
47
58
59
54

69
47
49
67
78
75

67
51
63
60
58
45

67
58
51
57
72
69

57
57
55
54
67
55

All data are percentages.

420

G. Pfurtscheller et al. / Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology 99 (1996) 416-425

percentage band power time courses it becomes evident

that series of externally-paced hand movements with intervals of about 3 s are accompanied by periodic mu and/or
beta rhythm desynchronization and synchronization.
As can be seen in Fig. 4, the data show a high stability of
ERD patterns across sessions (X1, X2 and X3), but differences between subjects are obvious. In subjects D2 and D1
a clear post-movement beta synchronization can be
observed. It is of interest that the beta rebound is most
dominant over the contralateral hemisphere in subject
D2, indicating that a distinction between left and right
hand movement should be possible. In contrast, for subject
D1 the bilateral distribution of the beta rebound does not
allow a distinction between the target groups (furthermore,
no frequency components were found by DSLVQ). In the
selected frequency range (12-16 Hz) of subject A5, a clear

movement-related desynchronization with contralateral

dominance, but only a weak post-movement rebound
was observed. The other 3 subjects showed ERD patterns
similar to subjects D2 and D1.
3.3. O n - l i n e s i n g l e E E G trial c l a s s i f i c a t i o n

Table 3 summarizes the results for each of t h e 6 subjects, showing the overall performance (i.e. the percentage
of correctly classified trials), the average number of classifications and the maximum number of classifications
within the trials. Notice the inverse relationship between
the average number of classifications and the performance.
This could, however, be a result of the data processing
method employed.
The results of the classifier output are summarized in

D2
0.07
0.08
0.05
0.04
0.02

0.05.

.A"

,..

o.o4

::%

......

0.03

A J'

O.O3

B9

Weights

Weights

,/

~;.

~;

0.02- ~

'"

0.01

0.01

--

""

\1
,

O,

e 10 11 12 13 14 1 $ 1 6 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

D1

0.04

~<"..~.,.,"X ,,

", '

0.02

t ./ ./".

,",,..V\

-'"

., .

.,

,'

,'

.. .... ~

-"

.'%

Hz

I: ~-.

'

/\

',

'.

'

'

'

'

'

D5

0.08
0.07
0.08
0.05

":

0.04,

0.03
0.02
0.01
0.

0
8

/~

Weights

0.08 ~

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 t9 20 21 22 23 24 H z

0.08

i "~

.4

"

;i

!'.q

002

",-

A5

o.12

003

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Weights
0.15

',

i ~

o.o,
O.Ol

D8

0.05

.~. I

0.01
,.

0.07
0.08

0.05

..':"

',

Weights

0.06-

0.1)3

',

7 8 9 10 11-12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 H Z

Weights

,,,.':

'

Hz

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

X1

Hz

..''2

X2

?.

,"

."

9 10 I1 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 H Z

X3

..o...o-

Fig. 2. Distribution of DSLVQ weight values for 18 frequency components in time window I1 for 6 subjects (D2, B9, D1, D8, A5, D5). For comparison,
the results of 3 sessions (X1, X2, X3) are superimposed.

421

G. Pfurtscheller et al. I Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology 99 (1996) 416-425

Fig. 5. In subject D2 (overall performance 93.7%) after 75

classifications (one classification per hand movement) the
first 21 trials (thereafter reset to zero) were processed. The
average number of classifications of the first block (21
trials) was 75/21 = 3.57; the average number of classifications of all 3 blocks wiLth 63 trials was 3.65. Subject A5
displayed the best performance. As can be seen in Fig. 5,
only 48 classifications were necessary for the first 21 trials;
the average number of classifications of all 3 blocks was
2.57. This means an average of between 2 and 3 movements were necessary to reach the threshold of the cumulative classifier and cau:se a shift of the cross and arrow on
the monitor. The overall performance of 100% in subject
A5 (see Table 3) mean:~ that all EEG segments were correctly classified. In subject B9 the tendency for correct

classification is present only in the first two blocks,

while in subject D1 the classifications were random
throughout the whole session.
4.

Discussion

The results show that for 4 out of 6 subjects, classification accuracies of between 89 and 100% (mean 94%) were
obtained. For the other two subjects, however, the classification accuracies were close to the random level of 50%.
From this we can conclude that not all subjects are suitable
for on-line EEG classification using the employed set of
methods. One reason for this can be inappropriate electrode positioning, another the masking of the sensorimotor
rhythms by occipital alpha or other rhythms. Another

B9

D2
Weights

Weights

0.06.

0.06,

0.05'

oo , - -

0.04.

0.04.

0.03.
0.02.

. A

,%,/

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i" A t ~ . " F : "

-"'"

~:'.

0.01

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o.o..

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9 1o 11 lg: 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 H z

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o.,.._....

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o.= ~.,, ~ .,

=,

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9 10 11 12 13 14 1$ 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

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D8

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A5
Weights

A-"

^,.

O, " ; : ; " : : : : ; : : : : : ; I
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 J"

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 H Z

o..

.....
...of.

0.01

0.01
8

Jt

0.04.

..'k .,"., _.,..

0.06.
.,

Weights

0.06.

o=

""

D1
Weights

0.~.

'

">'.A

00,

0.02

"

-'.A

.,

-...,~

~-e,, /

0.01
'

"

9 10 11 12 13 14 t5 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 H Z

Xl

X2

,41

\'"'V"

"

=:

'

9 10 11 12 t3 14 IS 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

X3

Fig. 3. Distribution of DSLYQ weight values for 18 frequency components in time window I2 for all subjects and sessions (see Fig. 2).

'

G. Pfurtscheller et al. / Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology 99 (1996) 416-425

422

03
200

D2

150

electrode
200]
16 - 24 Hz

-50'

10

.50

P~lo
-50

?,,'r,.,~r

'2 4

d
12

[s]

200 ]

10

12

14

150 1

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50 -] ".

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~so

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2

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-50

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0

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-50 !

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D1

-i

150 1

100
50.
~]0
-100 0

04

10

12

:.

Is] -loo

14

Xl

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is]
0

X2

10

12

14

X3

Fig. 4. Average time courses of band power changes (in %) for 3 subjects (D2, D1, A5) in 3 sessions (X1, X2, X3). The EEG data presented were
recorded from electrodes C3 and C4 during left hand movement. The time points of beep presentation are marked by vertical lines. Positive deflection
indicates a band power increase (synchronization), negative deflection a band power decrease (desynchronization).

explanation for the unsatisfactory results in two subjects

could be that the classification algorithm is not appropriate.
It is known that EEG electrodes located within a distance of only 2.5 cm over sensorimotor areas can display
circumscribed EEG reactivity patterns during finger
(hand) movement (Pfurtscheller et al., 1994b; Stanc~ik
and Pfurtscheller, 1995). In all subjects the electrodes
were placed at C3 and C4 with no optimization of location.
Furthermore, the same electrodes were used for classification of mu and beta components, although there is strong
evidence that the mu rhythm is generated in the somatosensory area and central beta rhythms in the motor area
(Salmelin and Had, 1994). EEG recording with an array of
closely spaced electrodes revealed that the mu rhythm is

measured best with an electrode placed slightly more posterior compared to the best location for measuring the
Table 3
Results of on-line classification accuracy (performance in %), average
number and maximum number of single beep classifications within trials

D2
B9
D1
D8
A5
D5

Performance
(%)

Av. no.
class,

Max. no.
class.

93.7
60.3
50.8
88.9
100
90.6

3.65
6.63
6.35
4.92
2.57
3.65

12
17
28
25
8
15

G. Pfurtscheller et al. / Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology 99 (1996) 416-425

D2
80

423

B9
30

60
40

10

20
0
-20

15.--29--43--57

71 .-85--99 113,.127 141 155-.169-183-197 211 225

.10 ~
-20 /

D1

sl

r6 .101 1 ~ lsl lr6 201 z ~ 2sl 276 3 0 . 1 . ~ . 1 , 3 r ~ 0 . 1

v"

D5
8O
60
40

.........

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

-20

A5
IO0
8O

D8
80
60
40
20

20
0

0
11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 1.11 12.1 .131 141 151 161

-20

19--37--55--73--91 109-127 145-163-181 199-217-235.253-271..289.~

Fig. 5. Visualization of classification results of the 6 subjects from on-line experiments. The x-axis displays the number of classifications (beeps) with 21
trials per block. On the y-axis the value of the cumulative classifications is displayed. A correct classification results is an increase dependent on the
quality measure of the LVQ classifier and a wrong classification result in a decrease. Between blocks the cumulative classifier value is reset to zero.

central beta rhythm (Pfurtscheller et al., 1994a).

It is also possible that mu and/or central beta rhythms
are of small amplitude and masked by temporal and/or
parietal rhythms. It should be kept in mind that mu
rhythms are only found in a very small percentage of subjects by visual inspection (Chatrian and Lairy, 1976). With
closely spaced electrodes, bipolar derivation and ERD calculation, mu and central beta rhythms can be found in
nearly every subject (Pfurtscheller and Aranibar, 1977;
Pfurtscheller, 1981). In our case the EEG recording was
bipolar, although not closely spaced. This could be another
reason for the fact that for two subjects the results were not
satisfactory. Biofeedback training is perhaps one method
to enhance the occun'ence of mu rhythm (Kuhlmann,
1978b; Mulholland, 1995). The use of signal-space filter
methods (Tesche et al., 1995) or the calculation of partial
autospectra (Dumermuth and Molinari, 1991) could be
ways to separate sensorimotor rhythms from others in
future experiments.
In 4 subjects the classification accuracy was satisfactory. The time period needed for these optimal results
was around 9 s and was achieved by the cumulative classification of 3 consecutive hand-movement-related EEG
patterns. This time intel~cal is relatively long for a practical
application of a BCI, but the goal of this experimental
setting was not to minimize time consumption but to max-

imize the classification accuracy.

The optimal frequency components were found, with
one exception (subject B9), between 12 and 24 Hz. This
range includes part of the mu and central beta rhythms, as
well as the sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) with a frequency
range of 12-15 Hz (Sterman, 1977; a similar SMR was
found in cats during immobility: Howe and Sterman, 1972;
Rougeoul et al., 1974). That this range excludes the alpha
band is not surprising; rhythms in the alpha band need at
least 3 - 4 s to recover to the reference level before desynchronization (Wolpaw, personal communication). This
time interval is too long to use desynchronization in the
alpha band for cursor control when movements have to be
made in intervals of 3 s. The frequency range 12-24 Hz
not only includes the first harmonic components of the
arch-shaped mu rhythm (Gastaut, 1952), but can also
include the mu rhythm itself. Kuhlmann (1978a) and
Pfurtscheller (1981) reported on mu rhythms with frequencies of 13.7 Hz and 13.5 Hz.
An interesting aspect is that for 5 of the 6 subjects (i.e.
all except subject A5), the EEG displayed a fast recovery
after desynchronization. This phenomenon can be seen as
a type of event-related synchronization (ERS; Pfurtscheller, 1992) and was most dominant in the lower beta band.
In 3 subjects (D2, D8 and D5) the post-movement beta
synchronization was of contralateral dominance and repre-

424

G. Pfurtscheller et al. / Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology 99 (1996) 416-425

sentative for the interval 12. Such a post-movement beta

synchronization after internally paced finger movement
was reported recently by StancS_k and Pfurtscheller
(1995) and Pfurtscheller et al. (1996b). They found this
kind of beta synchronization close to the motor cortex and
interpreted it as a short-lasting 'idling' state of the motor
cortex after activation due to the motor output.
An important step toward an efficient EEG classification
is the use of two different frequency bands and two different time windows. In the Graz BCI 1 (classification of two
different movement-related EEG patterns; Kalcher et al.,
1992; Pfurtscheller et al., 1993) and in the Graz BCI 2
(classification of 3 different movement-related EEG patterns; Kalcher et al., 1996), only one time window and one
fixed frequency band was used as input for the classifier.
One way to select the frequency band best suitable for
classification is to use the DSLVQ algorithm (Pregenzer
et al., 1994). This algorithm was applied successfully for
selection of EEG electrode positions (Pfurtscheller et al.,
1996a) and for discrimination between mu and central beta
rhythms (Pfurtscheller et al., 1994a).
It is of interest to note that with the Graz BCI prototype
the classification results of almost 100% were obtained
after only 2 days of training. To obtain such good classification accuracy based on single EEG trial analysis it is of
importance to select proper time windows and frequency
bands to form the input vectors for the classifier. The preferable frequency components were found in the alpha and
lower beta band and had to be selected for each subject.
The importance of such an individual frequency band
selection for ERD analysis was stressed recently by Klimesch et al. (1994) for memory studies and by Stanc~ik and
Pfurtscheller (1995) for investigation of beta desynchronization in a movement task.

Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the 'Allgemeine Unfallversicherungsanstalt (AUVA)' and the 'Fonds zur
Frrderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung' (projects
P9043 and P11208-MED). We thank Doris Petz for realization of the measurements.

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