Skip to main content
Log in

Stability of Human EEG Patterns in Different Tasks: The Person Authentication Problem

  • Published:
Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This article addresses the main problems in person authentication using the EEG. This area is currently under active development due to advances in virtual spaces and seeking new methods for user recognition in different internet platforms. One task that needs to be solved is that of identifying stable EEG measures and patterns which might be used to perform reliable recognition of people over long time intervals. The second question considered here is that of selecting tasks for EEG recording protocols. In the present study, subjects’ EEG traces were recorded at rest and on performance of various motor tasks five times over three months and the stability of the different patterns was then compared. The results showed that the most stable was the α-rhythm pattern in the resting state with the eyes closed, with minimal values of the coefficient of variation of the α rhythm but strong within-group spreads. Of the active tests, the most stable indicators were obtained on observing motor actions and the least stable patterns were seen on performance. Writing with a pen was the action characterized by the lowest stability of EEG measures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bazanova, O. M., “Current interpretation of electroencephalogram α-activity,” Usp. Fiziol. Nauk., 40, No. 3, 32–53 (2009).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bazanova, O. M., “Variability and reproducibility of individual EEG α-rhythm frequency depending on experimental conditions,” Zh. Vyssh. Nerv. Deyat., 61, No. 1, 102–111 (2011).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chan, H.-L., Kuo, P.-C., Cheng, C.-Y., and Chen, Y.-S., “Challenges and future perspectives on electroencephalogram-based biometrics in person recognition,” Front. Neuroinform., 12, 1–15 (2018), https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fninf.2018.00066.

  • Chuang, J., Nguyen, H., Wang, C., and Johnson, B., “I think, therefore I am: Usability and security of authentication using brainwaves,” in: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) (2013), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41320-9_1.

  • Das, K., Zhang, S., Giesbrecht, B., and Eckstein, M. P., “Using rapid visually evoked EEG activity for person identification,” in: Proc. 31st Ann. Int. Conf. of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society: Engineering the Future of Biomedicine, EMBC (2009), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5334858.

  • Fraschini, M., Hillebrand, A., Demuru, M., et al., “An EEG-based biometric system using eigenvector centrality in resting state brain networks,” IEEE Signal Process. Lett., 22, No. 6, 666–670 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goncharov, S. M. and Vishnyakov, M. S., “User identification by electroencephalography using ‘brain–computer interface’ techniques,” Dokl. TUTUR, No. 1–2, 25 (2012).

  • Hu, B., Liu, Q., Zhao, Q., et al., “A real-time electroencephalogram (EEG) based individual identification interface for mobile security in ubiquitous environment,” in: Proceedings – 2011 IEEE Asia-Pacific Services Computing Conf., APSCC (2011), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1109/APSCC.2011.87.

  • Hu, J. F., “New biometric approach based on motor imagery EEG signals,” in: FBIE 2009 – 2009 Int. Conf. on Future BioMedical Information Engineering (2009), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1109/FBIE.2009.5405787.

  • Malinka, K., Hancek, P., and Trzos, M., “Evaluation of biometric authentication based on visual evoked potentials,” in: Proceedings – Int. Carnahan Conf. on Security Technology (2011), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1109/CCST.2011.6095875.

  • Marcel, S. and Millan, J. del R., “Person authentication using brainwaves (EEG) and maximum a posteriori model adaptation,” IEEE Trans. Patt. Anal. Mach. Intell., 29, 743–748 (2007), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1109/TPAMI.2007.1012.

  • Nguyen, B., Nguyen, D., Ma, W., and Tran, D., “Investigating the possibility of applying EEG lossy compression to EEG-based user authentication,” 2017 Int. Joint Conf. on Neural Networks (IJCNN), IEEE (2017), pp. 79–85.

  • Noguchi, Y., Inui, K., and Kakigi, R., “Temporal dynamics of neural adaptation effect in the human visual ventral stream,” Int. Congr. Ser., 24, 6283–6290 (2004), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ics.2004.11.003.

  • Palaniappan, R. and Mandic, D. P., “Energy of brain potentials evoked during visual stimulus: A new biometric?” in: Artificial Neural Networks: Formal Models and Their Applications – Icann 2005, Pt. 2, Proc. Lett., 27, 726–733 (2005).

  • Poulos, M., Rangoussi, M., Alexandris, N., and Evangelou, A., “Person identification from the EEG using nonlinear signal classification,” Methods Inf. Med., 41, 64–75 (2002), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0038-1634316.

  • Poulos, M., Rangoussi, M., and Alexandris, N., “Neural network based person identification using EEG,” Proc. Int. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing Phoenix, AZ (1999a), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1109/ICASSP.759940.

  • Poulos, M., Rangoussi, M., Chrissikopoulos, V., and Evangelou, A., “Parametric person identification from the EEG using computational geometry,” in: Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Electronics, Circuits, and Systems in 6th IEEE Int. Conf. on Electronics, Circuits and Systems, Pafos, Cyprus (1999b), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1109/ICECS.813403.

  • Rahman, M. W. and Gavrilova, M., “Comparison analysis of overt and covert mental stimuli of brain signal for person identification,” Transactions on Computational Science XXX, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg (2017), pp. 73–91.

  • Rahman, M. W. and Gavrilova, M., “Overt mental stimuli of brain signal for person identification,” 2016 Int. Conf. on Cyberworlds (CW), IEEE (2016), pp. 197–203.

  • Soni, Y. S., Somani, S. B., and Shete, V. V., “Biometric user authentication using brain waves,” 2016 Int. Conf. on Inventive Computation Technologies (ICICT), IEEE, 2, 1–6 (2016).

  • Thomas, K. P. and Vinod, A. P., “EEG-based biometric authentication using gamma band power during rest state,” Circ., Syst., Signal Process., 37, No. 1, 277–289 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Touyama, H. and Hirose, M., “Non-target photo images in oddball paradigm improve EEG-based personal identification rates,” in: 2008 30th Ann. Int. Conf. of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2008), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1109/IEMBS.2008.4650115.

  • Yang, S. and Deravi, F., “On the usability of electroencephalographic signals for biometric recognition: A survey,” IEEE Trans. on Human–Machine Systems, 47, 958–969 (2017), https://doi.org.https://doi.org/10.1109/THMS.2017.2682115.

  • Zenkov, L. R., Clinical Electroencephalography (with wlements of epileptology), L. R. Zenkov (ed.), MEDpress-Inform, Moscow (2004), 3rd ed.

  • Zhirmunskaya, E. A., “ Clinical Electroencephalography, MEIBI, Moscow (1991).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to N. N. Lebedeva.

Additional information

Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 70, No. 1, pp, 40–49, January–February, 2020.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lebedeva, N.N., Karimova, E.D. Stability of Human EEG Patterns in Different Tasks: The Person Authentication Problem. Neurosci Behav Physi 50, 874–880 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-020-00980-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-020-00980-5

Keywords

Navigation