Exploratory methods for high-performance EEG speech decoding

Abstract

State-of-the-art technologies in neural speech decoding utilize data collected from microwires or microarrays implanted directly into the cerebral cortex. Yet as a tool accessible only to individuals with implanted electrodes, speech decoding from devices of this nature is severely limited in its implementation, and cannot be considered a viable solution for widespread application. Speech decoding from non-invasive EEG signals can achieve relatively high accuracy (70-80%), but only from very small classification tasks, with more complex tasks typically yielding a limited (20-50%) classification accuracy. We propose a novel combination of technologies in which transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is first applied to augment the neural signals of interest, producing a greater signal-to-noise ratio in the EEG data. Next, delay differential analysis (DDA) – a cutting-edge computational method based on nonlinear dynamics – is implemented to capture the widest range of information available in the neural signal, by incorporating both linear and nonlinear dynamics.