EEG-based auditory attention detection with spiking graph convolutional network

Abstract

Decoding auditory attention from brain activities, such as electroencephalography (EEG), sheds light on solving the machine cocktail party problem. However, effective representation of EEG signals remains a challenge. One of the reasons is that the current feature extraction techniques have not fully exploited the spatial information along the EEG signals. EEG signals reflect the collective dynamics of brain activities across different regions. The intricate interactions among these channels, rather than individual EEG channels alone, reflect the distinctive features of brain activities. In this study, we propose a spiking graph convolutional network, called SGCN, which captures the spatial features of multi-channel EEG in a biologically plausible manner. Comprehensive experiments were conducted on two publicly available datasets. Results demonstrate that the proposed SGCN achieves competitive auditory attention detection (AAD) performance in low-latency and low-density EEG settings. As it features low power consumption, the SGCN has the potential for practical implementation in intelligent hearing aids and other BCIs.