Decoding working memory-related information from repeated psychophysiological EEG experiments using convolutional and contrastive neural networks.

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Abstract

Extracting reliable information from EEG signals is difficult because the low signal-to-noise ratio and significant intersubject variability seriously hinder statistical analyses. However, recent advances in explainable machine learning open a new strategy to address this problem.The current study evaluates this approach using results from the classification and decoding of electrical brain activity associated with information retention. We designed four neural network models differing in architecture, training strategies, and input representation to classify single experimental trials of a working memory task.Our best models achieved an accuracy of 65.29$±0.76 and Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.288±0.018, outperforming the reference model trained on the same data. The highest correlation between classification score and behavioral performance was 0.36 (p=0.0007). Using analysis of input perturbation, we estimated the importance of EEG channels and frequency bands in the task at hand. The set of essential features identified for each network varies. We identified a subset of features common to all models that identified brain regions and frequency bands consistent with current neurophysiological knowledge of the processes critical to attention and working memory. Finally, we proposed sanity checks to examine further the robustness of each model’s set of features.Our results indicate that explainable deep learning is a powerful tool for decoding information from EEG signals. It is crucial to train and analyze a range of models to identify stable and reliable features. Our results highlight the need for explainable modeling as the model with the highest accuracy appeared to use residual artifactual activity.Creative Commons Attribution license.