2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communication Control and Computing Technologies (ICACCCT)
Use of Discrete Sine Transform in EEG signal
classification for early Autism detection
' 2
Priyanka Ganesh ,
'
Electronics and Communication,SSN College of Engineering,Kalavakkam, India
2
School of Electrical and Electronics, VIT University
Abstract-In this work, a method called Discrete Sine Transform
is used in order to classify EEG signals of the brain and are used
for the purpose of early autism detection. Autism is a complex
behavioral disorder . The EEG signals are obtained by using
electrodes that are attached to the brain. Each electrode
measures the signals in different regions of the brain as the
subject responds to different stimuli. The signals are processed
by applying Discrete Sine Transform (DST) and then it is passed
as an input to an artificial neural network. DST is used as it
greatly simplifies the process and reduces the complexity. The
computing tool of a neural network is used in order to objectively
estimate whether a subject is suffering from autism. The network
is trained with a particular dataset and upon applying a testing
input the output was achieved. This study looked at EEG signals,
an indirect measure of brain connectivity, and identified patterns
that distinguished subjects at an increased risk for autism.
Keywords-Feature Extraction; artificial neural networks; discrete
sine transform; EEG.
I. INTRODUCTION
Autism is said to be an extremely complex behavioral disorder
of drastically distorted development of a human being. Autism
spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with severe
impairments in social functioning, communicative and
cognitive abilities. Autism is considered a severe form of
autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which includes milder forms
such as Asperger's syndrome. Currently, there are no genetic
or neurological markers for the majority of individuals with
autism. Autism is characterized by both negative and positive
symptoms. Negative symptoms, which pertain to impairments
in specific areas of functioning in comparison to typically
developing individuals, occur mainly in the social and
communication spheres alone. Positive symptoms refer to the
presence of special behaviors that are not evident in typically
developing individuals, and include the subject's engagement
in repetitive movements and intense interest in the features of
objects[1].The neural connections in the brain can be used to
explain the abnormalities of one's behavior and it can also be
used to help explain some of the reasons for the occurrence of
autism. The main cause of autism is still unclear, but it is
believed to occur as a result of disturbances in a distributed
circuit of cerebellar, limbic, and cortical systems, symptoms,
which refer to impairments in specific areas The basic
structure of the brain is highly complicated. A good way to
measure and track accurately the activity in the brain is to use
the electroencephalography i.e. EEG signals. EEG recorders,
are typically fast, relatively inexpensive, and do normally not
ISBN No. 978-1-4799-3914-5/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE
R Menaka
require any invasive procedures. We will therefore focus on
EEG inputs from now on. The purpose of the recorder is to
basically measure, amplify and alter the EEG signal, before
converting it to a digital form and sending it on to the
preprocessor module [2]. This functional connection can be
used to explain one's ability to interact on a social level and
for performance of simple tasks that people perform on an
everyday basis. Also, the EEG always results from a large
number of individually acting neurons, each interacting with
its neighboring neurons as well as with remote neurons whose
electric potentials are not included in the measurement. It is
therefore questionable whether this EEG time series,
especially those of short duration, can carry enough
information to reveal dynamical properties of the underlying
system of the brain [3]. Graph analysis of some signals such
as magnetoencephalography (MEG) and EEG has revealed
major fundamental insights into the large-scale functional
organization of the brain in health and disease[4].The recorded
EEG signals gives a continuous graphic exhibition of the
spatial distribution of the varying voltage fields over time
with various regions of the brain[5].This technological
challenge could prove to be an invaluable step toward
understanding fundamental and pathological brain
processes[6]. The capability of the mathematical microscope
of neural networks to analyze different scales of neural
rhythms is shown to be a powerful and handy tool for
investigating small scale oscillations of the brain signals.
Neural networks work well when there is pattern overlap of
input-output pattern pairs and it creates a basis for the shared
use of knowledge. For example, when there exists two inputs
that are similar to one another, the neural network will react to
them in an almost similar fashion [7]. Given the heterogeneity
of most neural disorders , it is likely that methods of this type
will be required to design intelligent devices for treating other
neural disorders as well such as autism. In early attempts to
show a relationship between the EEG and behaviour , analog
frequency analyzers were used to examine the EEG data. This
approach is based on the interpretation that the EEG spectrum
contains some characteristic waveforms that fall primarily
within four frequency bands - d «4 Hz), h (4-8 Hz), (8-13
Hz), and b (13-30 Hz)[8].AIl the necessary data that leads to
any behavioural disorder is said to lie within this spectrum.
The Feature dimensionality reduction methods have a great
significance for making better use of EEG data, since EEG
features are usually high-dimensional and contain a lot of
noise [9]. The "diagnosis" of autism, which really is a
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 2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communication Control and Computing Technologies (ICACCCT)

classification system, is far from ideal, and the misdiagnosis The following Fig 3 shows the signals of Set A till E.
of autism is complicating therapeutic endeavors as well as the Amplitudes of surface EEG recordings are typically in the
search for primary causes of autism [lO].Hence in this paper, order of some mV. For intracranial EEG recordings
the main aim is to use the neural networks tool in order to amplitudes range around some 100 mV.
attempt at classifying the EEG signals and manipulate them in
order to objectively detect the presence or absence of autism.
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II. METHODOLOGY �.�y�����1 ����I'i»lI�I�����I���1
The methodology employed in this paper in order to
successfully classify the EEG signals that are used is as shown
���Jv�
below in Fig 1.

DATA
PREPROCESSING Fig.3. Exemplary EEG time series from each of the five sets.
ACQUISITION
From top to bottom: set A to set E

ARTIFICIAL B. Pre-processing
NEURALNETWORKS
Each set has 100 different signals that are each made up of
4097 samples. One set is chosen for the healthy signal from a
Fig. I. Block diagram of the methodology
normal person and is denoted as Set A. Similarly another set is
chosen for the abnormal signals of a patient and is denoted as
A. Data Acquisition set B. The data set of 4097 samples is divided into a 207x19
Five set labeled as A-E each containing 100 EEG segments of matrix. By doing this the data is divided into signals coming
23.6-sec duration, were composed for the study. These from 19 different channels. Thus now we have a 207x19
segments were selected and cut out from continuous matrix that can be worked with. Next the data that is obtained
multichannel EEG recordings after visual inspection for are passed through a filter. This filter has a cut off frequency
artifacts, e.g., due to muscle activity or eye movements. Sets of 40 hz as the characteristics waveforms of the EEG signals
A and B consisted of segments taken from surface EEG mainly fall within the 8-30Hz band. Taking the values of EEG
recordings that were carried out on five healthy volunteers signals from a channel I of a normal set A of signals:
using a standardized electrode placement scheme .Here a set
of 19 electrodes were placed on different regions of the brain G= [12 22 35 45 69 74 79 78 66 43] (1)
and EEG signals were recorded. Volunteers were relaxed in an
awake state with eyes open A and eyes closed B respectively. Upon filtering it with a low pass filter of cut off frequency
Sets C, 0, and E originated from our EEG archive of 40hz, we obtain,
presurgical diagnosis. For the present study EEGs from five
patients were selected. Segments in set D were recorded from H= [13.7297062473719, 25.3582061346650 , ... ] (2)
within the epileptogenic zone, and those in set C from the
hippocampal formation of the opposite hemisphere of the
C. Signal Processing
brain. All EEG signals were recorded with the same 128-
Next the technique of Discrete Sine Transform is applied on
channel amplifier system, using average common reference
them. The discrete sine transform (DST) is a Fourier-related
omitting electrodes containing pathological activity C, 0, and
transform similar to the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), but
E .After 12 bit analog-to-digital conversion, the data were
using a purely real matrix. It is equivalent to the imaginary
written continuously onto a disk of a data acquisition
parts of a DFT of roughly twice the length, operating on real
computer system at a sampling rate of 173.61 Hz. Band-pass
data with odd symmetry (since the Fourier transform of a real
filter settings were 0.53-40 Hz -12 dB/. The Fig 2 below
and odd function is imaginary and odd), where in some
shows the standard electrode placement that is employed to
variants the input and/or output data are shifted by half a
measure EEG signals.
sample. DSTs are widely employed in solving partial
differential equations by spectral methods, where the different
0 0
variants of the DST correspond to slightly different oddleven
8 5
? boundary conditions at the two ends of the array. Like any
is
Y Fourier-related transform, discrete sine transforms (DSTs)
8

0
express a function or a signal in terms of a sum
(; of sinusoids with different frequencies and amplitudes. Like
Fig.2. Electrode Placement on the brain
the discrete Fourier Transform (OFT), a DST operates on a
function at a finite number of discrete data points. The

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 2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communication Control and Computing Technologies (ICACCCT)
obvious distinction between a DST and a DFf is that the
former uses only sine functions, while the latter uses both
cosines and sines (in the form of complex exponentials).
However, this visible difference is merely a consequence of a
deeper distinction: a DST implies different boundary
conditions than the DFT or other related transforms. The main
reason that DST is chosen instead of the more common
Discrete Cosine Transform(DCT) is that the dst will give the
real part of the value alone whereas the dct will give rise to an
imaginary part as well. Thus we can say that the use of dst
greatly reduces the complexity of the process as well and its
usage is more suited to EEG signal processing. Formally, the
N
discrete sine transform is a linear invertible function-F: R -
N
> R (where R denotes the set of real numbers)or equivalently
an N x N square matrix There are several variants of the DST
with slightly modified definitions. The N real numbers XQ,
...., XN.l are transformed into the N real numbers XQ, , XN.
•••
I according to one of the formulas:
Xk=�::Xnsin[(1C/(N+ 1))(n+ 1)(k+ 1)]
Taking the signal values of one channel I that we have used in
the previous example, H, once the process of dst is applied to
them, will yield the following values.
J= [1340.07628105259 , 333.704608763707, ... ]
D. Thresholding
The average of all the 19 individual columns were calculated
separately. Next the matrix was thresholded by converting all
the values of a channel that are greater than its average into 0
and converting all the values less than the average into 1. In
this way a matrix consisting purely of Is and Os was
constructed. Three channels which had nearly equal average
values were chosen and then the first 30 samples of each
column were selected. Now a new matrix of dimensions 30X3
is obtained. This matrix will be the input matrix of the
artificial neural network. Let us take channel I of set A as our
channel after performing dst.
J= [1340.07628105259 ,333.704608763707, ... ]
The value of the average of J = 997.5285
Now all values above 997.5285 in the array are made 0, and
all the values less than that of 997.5285 are made 1.The output
waveform of the thresholded data is obtained as shown below
in Fig 4 below.
Thus K=[O 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0]
·:11 I
00
:1 1 1
'. " " .
-
FigA.Output waveform of the thresholded data.
E. Artificial Neural Networks
The human brain is essentially a black box. It is said to be one
of the most intricate designs known to man. The processes that
occur in the brain are hidden and are extremely complex. In
order to unveil and make known some of these secrets about
the actual working of the brain artificial neural networks were
designed. Artificial neural networks are computing systems
(3) that are made up of multiple, highly interconnected processing
elements (called nodes or artificial neurons) that abstractly try
to emulate the structure and operation of the biological
nervous system that is present in every human being.A
technique called Learning in ANNs is accomplished through
special training algorithms developed based on learning rules
that are thought to accurately mimic the learning mechanisms
(4)
that are seen in biological systems. There are various types
and architectures of neural networks varying fundamentally in
the way they learn. In this paper, neural network relevant to
the application being considered (i.e., classification of EEG
data) are used. A simple two-layer ANN consists only of an
input layer containing the input variables to the problem, this
case the EEG signals, and output layer containing the solution
of the problem structure of a fully connected three-layer
network. The determination of appropriate number of hidden
layers is one of the most important tasks in neural network
design. A network with too few hidden nodes would not be
efficient at differentiating between complex patterns that may
arise, leading to only a linear estimate of the actual trend. In
contrast, if the network has too many hidden nodes it may lead
to poor generalization for untrained data. With increasing
(5) number of hidden layers, training becomes excessively time­
consuming and arduous. An appropriate topology may still fail
to give a better model, unless trained by a suitable and
efficient training algorithm. A good training algorithm will
shorten the training time, while achieving a better accuracy.
The back propagation algorithm, which is based on searching
an error surface using gradient descent for points with
minimum error, is relatively easy to implement Optimization
(6) methods such as second-order methods (conjugate gradient,
quasi-Newton, Levenberg-Marquardt (L-M)) have also
been used for ANN training. The Levenberg-Marquardt
algorithm combines the best features of the Gauss-Newton
technique and the steepest-descent algorithm, but avoids many
of their limitations. In particular, it generally does not suffer
from the problem of slow convergence. Upon applying the
neural network with an input matrix of dimensions 30x3 that
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 2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communication Control and Computing Technologies (ICACCCT)

was obtained as a result of thresholding, and training it to a was reached. Thus we can infer from the above experimental
particular target, we have obtained the simulated network. The evidence that the use of artificial neural networks to work with
target was set such that 1 bits were used for the normal signals EEG signals of autism affected patients can help in
and 0 bits were used for the abnormal signals in order to determining the presence or absence of the disorder
classify them. The output is verified by applying various test objectively.
inputs from external Sets C and D and the network was
validated by obtaining the same performance curve almost REFERENCES
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Detection Analysis Anna Bonnel l ,2, Laurent Mottron1,2, Isabelle
checked and noted down as shown in the Fig 5 below.
Peretz I,
[2] A Neural Network Based Brain (Computer Interface for
Best Training Performance is NaN at epoch 4
Classification of Movement Related EEG , Pontus Forslund
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[3] Ralph G. Andrzejak,I,2, Klaus Lehnertz, l ,t Florian Mormann,I,2

--------. Goal
Christoph Rieke,I,2 Peter David,2 and Christian E.
Elger l,lndications of nonlinear deterministic and finite­
dimensional structures in time series of brain electrical activity:
Dependence on recording region and brain state.
[4] Brain functional networks in syndromic an dnon-syndromic
autism: a graph theoretical study of EEG connectivity Jurriaan M
Peters,Maxime Taguet l , Clemente Vega,
10.8 [5] Abdulhamit Subasia, Ergun Erc.elebi ,Classification of EEG
signals using neural network and logistic regression.
Fig .5. Output waveform of the trained network. [6] Paul Alivisatos,1 Miyoung Chun,2 George M. Church,3 Ralph J.
Greenspan,4 Michael L. Roukes,5 and Rafael Yuste, The Brain
Activity Map Project and the Challenge of Functional
III. RESULTS Connectomics.
[7] Neural Network Abnormalities in Autism Using Adjacency
Diagnosing autism is a difficult task requmng the keen Matrices,Andrew Choe.
observation of the patient, an EEG, and gathering of additional [8] Abdulhamit Subasi, M. Ismail Gursoy,EEG signal classification
using PCA, ICA, LOA and support vector machines.
clinical information based on performance in behavioral social
[9] Li-Chen Shi, Ruo-Nan Duan and Bao-Liang Lu_ Senior Member,
and communicative tasks as well. An artificial neural network IEEE, Robust Principal Component Analysis Algorithm for EEG­
that classifies subjects as having or not having autism Based Vigilance Estimation.
provides a valuable diagnostic decision support tool for [to] Indu Joshi, Maire Percy, and Ivan Brown, Advances in
Understanding Causes of Autism and Effective Interventions.
neurologists treating potential autism, since different
disorders in the autism spectrum require a different set of
measures to combat them effectively. In this paper,
classification of EEG signals was examined. Delta, theta,
alpha and beta subfrequencies of the EEG signals were
extracted by using DST. The DST coefficients of EEG signals
were processed and used as an input to LR and MLPNN that
could be used to detect autism. The neural network that was
formed was trained to detect the presence or absence of
autism. Next upon applying the input vectors of data for both
normal and abnormal values the output detected by the neural
network has been tabulated and compared with the actual
result in the Table I as shown below.

TABLE I
TABULATION OF RESULTS OF THE NEURAL NETWORK ANALYSIS
S.No Input Data Classified Actual
Output Result
[1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,11 Normal Normal
l.
[0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1, II Normal Normal
2.
[1,1,1,1,1,1,0,1,1,11 Normal Normal
3.

[1,1,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,11 Abnormal Abnormal

4.

5. [1,1,1,1,1,0,1,1,1,11 Abnormal Normal

The above tabulated results were shown to a neurologist and a

conclusion that about 80 percent of the results were accurate

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