Quantifying Event-Related (De)Synchronization Variability for Brain-Computer Interface: A Unified and Interpretable Framework

Abstract

Objective: Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) enable the control of external devices by decoding user intentions from electroencephalography (EEG). However, substantial EEG variability within and between users remains a major challenge. To better understand this variability, we propose interpretable metrics that independently quantify temporal, spatial, and frequency variability in BCI related brain activity within and between users. Methods: We propose a framework to quantify variability by extracting EEG features and defining variability as their dispersion around their centroid using appropriate distance functions. Using two motor imagery BCI datasets (N = 133 users), we investigated the relationship between BCI performance and the variability metrics through within-user and cross-user classification experiments. Results: Negative correlations of -0.2 to -0.4 were observed across most conditions, suggesting that lower variability is associated with higher BCI performance. Moreover, the metrics revealed differences in robustness to variability between the deep learning and Riemannian-based classifiers, with the former showing weaker correlations. Conclusion: The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed variability metrics and suggest that reducing variability may improve BCI performance while revealing differences in the sensitivity of classification models to different types of variability. Significance: The framework quantifies temporal, spatial, and frequency variability at multiple hierarchical levels (within-trial, between-trial, and between-trial-group), providing interpretable measures to better understand EEG variability and support more robust BCIs. It could also be used to characterize dataset variability, evaluate classifier sensitivity, incorporate variability into objective functions, and provide variability-based user feedback.