Fusing the spatial structure of electroencephalogram channels can increase the individualization of the functional connectivity network

An electroencephalogram (EEG) functional connectivity (FC) network is individualized and plays a significant role in EEG-based person identification. Traditional FC networks are constructed by statistical dependence and correlation between EEG channels, without considering the spatial relationships between the channels. The individual identification algorithm based on traditional FC networks is sensitive to the integrity of channels and crucially relies on signal preprocessing; therefore, finding a new presentation for FC networks may help increase the performance of the identification algorithms. EEG signals are smooth across space owing to the volume conduction effect. Considering such spatial relationships among channels can provide a more accurate representation of FC networks. In this study, we propose an EEG FC network with virtual nodes that combines the spatial relationships and functional connectivity of channels. The comparison results for individual identification show that the novel EEG network is more individualized and achieves an accuracy of 98.64% for data without preprocessing. Furthermore, our algorithm is more robust in reducing the number of channels and can perform well even when a large area of channels is removed.