DeCorrNet: Enhancing Neural Decoding Performance by Eliminating Correlations in Noise

Abstract

Neural decoding, which transforms neural signals into motor commands, plays a key role in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Existing neural decoding approaches mainly rely on the assumption of independent noises, which could perform poorly in case the assumption is invalid. However, correlations in noises have been commonly observed in neural signals. Specifically, noise in different neural channels can be similar or highly related, which could degrade the performance of those neural decoders. To tackle this problem, we propose the DeCorrNet, which explicitly removes noise correlation in neural decoding. DeCorrNet could incorporate diverse neural decoders as an ensemble module to enhance the neural decoding performance. Experiments with benchmark BCI datasets demonstrated the superiority of DeCorrNet and achieved state-of-the-art results.