Effects of stimulation frequency and stimulation waveform on steady-state visual evoked potentials using a computer monitor

Objective. A visual stimulator plays a vital part in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) based on steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP). The properties of visual stimulation, such as frequency, color, and waveform, will influence SSVEP-based BCI performance to some extent. Recently, the computer monitor serves as a visual stimulator that is widespread in SSVEP-based BCIs because of its great flexibility in generating visual stimuli. However, stimulation properties based on a computer monitor have received very little attention. For a better comprehension of SSVEPs, this study explored the stimulation effects of waveforms and frequencies, when evoking SSVEPs through a computer monitor. Approach. This study utilized the approximation methods to realize sine- and square-wave temporal modulations at 18 stimulation frequencies ranging from 6 to 40 Hz on a conventional 120 Hz LCD screen. We collected electroencephalogram (EEG) datasets from 12 healthy subjects and compared the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), amplitudes, and topographic mapping of SSVEPs evoked by these two temporal modulation flickers (sine- and square-wave). In addition, a BCI experiment with two nine-target BCIs (i.e. low-frequency BCI and high-frequency BCI) was implemented to compare the two stimulation waveforms in terms of BCI performance. Main results. For both sine- and square-wave stimulation conditions, strong SSVEPs over the occipital area were observed for each stimulation frequency. SSVEP amplitudes at the stimulation frequency exhibited a global peak in the low-frequency band. The second harmonic SSVEP frequency-response functions showed the largest amplitude at 6 Hz and fell sharply for higher frequencies. In the BCI experiment, the classification performance of the square-wave stimuli was notably higher than that of the sine-wave stimuli when using shorter data lengths. Significance. These results suggested that the square-wave flicker was more efficient at implementing high-speed BCIs based on SSVEP when using a computer monitor as a visual stimulator.