Analyzing Steady State Visual Evoked Potentials Using Blind Source Separation

The present study seeks to investigate the limits of scalp EEG (electroencephalogram) SSVEP (Steady State Visual Evoked Potentials) phenomena (to which maximal and minimal frequencies SSVEP can be recorded at the scalp level). SSVEP are periodic evoked signals buried in the non-stationary waves of EEG recordings. EEG signals are furthermore noisy and contain artifacts which may interfere with brain signals. Our primary objective is therefore to enhance and/or extract SSVEP signals, and to reject the possibility of artifacts. Because EEG is recorded by several electrodes distributed over the scalp, and SSVEP have wide spatial extents, blind source separation can be used to enhance SSVEP responses. We explore the potential of blind source separation for SSVEP extraction and analysis, using the IWASOBI algorithm.