Removal of EMG Artifacts from Multichannel EEG Signals Using Combined Singular Spectrum Analysis and Canonical Correlation Analysis

Electroencephalography (EEG) signals collected from human scalps are often polluted by diverse artifacts, for instance electromyogram (EMG), electrooculogram (EOG), and electrocardiogram (ECG) artifacts. Muscle artifacts are particularly difficult to eliminate among all kinds of artifacts due to their complexity. At present, several researchers have proved the superiority of combining single-channel decomposition algorithms with blind source separation (BSS) to make multichannel EEG recordings free from EMG contamination. In our study, we come up with a novel and valid method to accomplish muscle artifact removal from EEG by using the combination of singular spectrum analysis (SSA) and canonical correlation analysis (CCA), which is named as SSA-CCA. Unlike the traditional single-channel decomposition methods, for example, ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), SSA algorithm is a technique based on principles of multivariate statistics. Our proposed approach can take advantage of SSA as well as cross-channel information. The performance of SSA-CCA is evaluated on semisimulated and real data. The results demonstrate that this method outperforms the state-of-the-art technique, EEMD-CCA, and the classic technique, CCA, under multichannel circumstances.