Lidia Scudiero
Lidia Scudiero

Motor Imagery BCI: Decoding Neural Intentions

Decoding motor imagery (left vs right hand vs foot vs tongue) from noisy EEG signals using Spatial Filters (CSP) and Deep Learning (EEGNet).

BCI Neural Decoding Showcase

Project Overview

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) represent the ultimate bridge between human cognition and machine execution. This project focuses on Motor Imagery (MI) decoding—identifying a user's intention to move loro hands just by analyzing brain's electrical activity (EEG) captured via noisy sensors.

The core challenge was the extremely low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of EEG data. I implemented and compared two distinct pipelines: a classical approach using Common Spatial Patterns (CSP) combined with LDA, and a state-of-the-art Deep Learning approach using EEGNet, a compact convolutional neural network specifically designed for BCI applications.

Key Technical Milestone

A major focus was Subject-Independent training, a high-difficulty task where the model must generalize across different brain architectures without prior calibration on the specific user. I achieved competitive accuracy benchmarks on the BCI Competition IV 2a dataset, demonstrating the robustness of the chosen architectures.

By visualizing neural topomaps and frequency bands (Mu/Beta rhythms), I validated that the models were truly listening to the motor cortex rather than picking up muscle artifacts or electrical noise, ensuring the physiological validity of the neural intentions decoded.

For a deep dive into my analytical process, the GitHub repository includes all the Jupyter Notebooks, preprocessing steps, and detailed statistical analyses conducted throughout the project.

Tools

MNE-Python
PyLSL
TensorFlow (EEGNet)
Scikit-Learn
CSP Filters
Streamlit
Signal Processing