GRAFT-EEG: Gauge-Aware Physical Field Transport for Cross-Dataset Motor-Imagery EEG
Organizations: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University
Abstract
Cross-dataset EEG decoding often treats montage, reference, and active-sensor changes as representation shift, although they also alter the observation operator. We study target-statistics-blind transfer: fitting receives no target signal, label, or empirical statistic, and electrode coordinates only instantiate a fixed prediction operator. method removes the active-set common-reference gauge and transports each native mask through a template motor leadfield. A source-fitted spectral classifier anchors the decision; a bounded state-space-model (SSM) residual is secondary. We establish restricted identifiability and an operator-perturbation bound. Across five leave-one-dataset-out targets (253 participants), dynamic method achieved 60.865% equal-target balanced accuracy versus 52.684% for strict-clean 5/5 BIOT (hierarchical difference +8.182 points; 95% CI +6.382 to +10.196; positive in every target). On four EEGPT-clean targets, the descriptive means were 61.520% and 59.057%. In four post-hoc exact same-parent tests, FULL exceeded coordinate-basis, matched-spectrum, row-shuffled, and wrong-anatomy controls by 9.959, 9.698, 11.241, and 3.985 points, respectively (all 95% CIs excluded zero; Holm-adjusted P<0.001). A separate 60-participant same-paradigm evaluation retained a positive physical-operator contrast (+4.029 points; +2.338 to +5.773), whereas dynamic--static was inconclusive; its preregistered status is partial confirmation rather than unrestricted external validation. The SSM added +1.059 points (+0.013 to +1.892). Claims remain bounded to five binary motor-imagery domains and the tested operators.
Figures & tables
| Dataset | Subjects | Raw trials | Retained | Excluded | Native ch. | Masks | Inactive trials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNCI2014_001 | 9 | 2,592 | 2,592 | 0 | 22 | 1 | 0 |
| Cho2017 | 52 | 10,520 | 10,492 | 28 | 64 | 223 | 4,710 |
| Lee2019_MI | 54 | 21,600 | 21,600 | 0 | 62 | 6 | 34 |
| Shin2017A | 29 | 1,740 | 1,740 | 0 | 30 | 1 | 0 |
| PhysionetMI | 109 | 4,918 | 4,918 | 0 | 64 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 253 | 41,370 | 41,342 | 28 | 22–64 | 232 | 4,744 |
| Method | BNCI | Cho | Lee | PhysioNet | Shin | Eligible mean | Exec. | Clean |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graft-EEG dynamic | 64.336 | 58.172 | 60.318 | 58.247 | 63.253 | 60.865 | 25/25 | 5/5 |
| Graft-EEG static | 64.923 | 56.817 | 59.448 | 56.717 | 61.126 | 59.806 | 25/25 | 5/5 |
| BIOT + LR | 56.250 | 50.086 | 52.524 | 51.741 | 52.816 | 52.684 | 25/25 | 5/5 |
| CBraMod frozen + LR | 52.392 | 50.241 | 50.341 | 50.001 | 50.724 | 50.740 | 25/25 | 5/5 |
| CBraMod source-only full FT | 50.394 | 49.925 | 50.544 | 49.908 | 47.172 | 49.589 | 25/25 | 5/5 |
| EEGPT + LR | 65.664 | 49.315 | 60.985 | — | 60.264 | 59.057 | 25/25 | 4/5 |
Appendix figures & tables39 assets
Supplementary material from the paper’s appendix.
Appendix
| Dataset | Subj. | Raw | Retained | Excl. | Ch. | Samples | Hz | Patterns | Inactive trials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNCI2014_001 | 9 | 2,592 | 2,592 | 0 | 22 | 600 | 200 | 1 | 0 |
| Cho2017 | 52 | 10,520 | 10,492 | 28 | 64 | 600 | 200 | 223 | 4,710 |
| Lee2019_MI | 54 | 21,600 | 21,600 | 0 | 62 | 600 | 200 | 6 | 34 |
| PhysionetMI | 109 | 4,918 | 4,918 | 0 | 64 | 600 | 200 | 1 | 0 |
| Shin2017A | 29 | 1,740 | 1,740 | 0 | 30 | 600 | 200 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 253 | 41,370 | 41,342 | 28 | — | — | — | 232 | 4,744 |
| Target ( ) | Canon. dyn. | Src.-only dyn. | Change (pp) | Src.-only stat. | Dyn.–stat. (pp) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNCI2014-001 (9) | 64.336 | 62.423 | 64.668 | ||
| Cho2017 (52) | 58.172 | 58.141 | 56.868 | ||
| Lee2019-MI (54) | 60.318 | 60.392 | 59.361 | ||
| PhysionetMI (109) | 58.247 | 58.020 | 56.724 | ||
| Shin2017A (29) | 63.253 | 63.322 | 60.943 | ||
| Equal-target mean (253) | 60.865 | 60.460 | 59.713 |
| Method | BA | Macro-F1 | AUROC | Metric availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graft-EEG dynamic | 60.865 | 58.886 | 66.447 | all three sealed |
| Graft-EEG static | 59.806 | 58.015 | 64.588 | all three sealed |
| BIOT + LR | 52.684 | 46.954 | 56.131 | all three sealed |
| CBraMod frozen + LR | 50.740 | — | — | BA only |
| EEGConformer | 50.448 | 44.322 | 50.808 | all three sealed |
| ODEBrain (scratch) | 50.174 | 39.996 | 51.060 | all three sealed |
| Method | BNCI | Cho | Lee | PhysioNet | Shin | Equal-target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graft-EEG dynamic | 64.336 | 58.172 | 60.318 | 58.247 | 63.253 | 60.865 |
| Graft-EEG static | 64.923 | 56.817 | 59.448 | 56.717 | 61.126 | 59.806 |
| BIOT + LR | 56.250 | 50.086 | 52.524 | 51.741 | 52.816 | 52.684 |
| CBraMod frozen + LR | 52.392 | 50.241 | 50.341 | 50.001 | 50.724 | 50.740 |
| EEGConformer | 50.455 | 50.183 | 49.958 | 50.321 | 51.322 | 50.448 |
| ODEBrain (scratch) | 50.085 | 49.871 | 50.621 | 50.210 | 50.080 | 50.174 |
| Method | BNCI | Cho | Lee | PhysioNet | Shin | Available mean | Strict | Exclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EEGPT + LR | 65.664 | 49.315 | 60.985 | — | 60.264 | 59.057 | 4/5 | overlap |
| LaBraM + LR | 53.997 | 50.584 | 51.267 | — | 52.000 | 51.962 | 4/5 | overlap |
| CodeBrain + LR | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0/5 | unresolved |
| Method | Source BA | Positive-rate range | Single | Coverage | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graft-EEG dynamic | 60.8 | 26.4–56.2 | 0.974 | 0.902 | 0 | 25/25 |
| Graft-EEG static | 58.6 | 39.8–55.4 | 0.993 | 0.948 | 0 | 25/25 |
| BIOT | 53.6 | 26.9–76.8 | 0.870 | 0.859 | 0 | 25/25 |
| EEGPT + LR | 61.2 | 13.3–54.4 | 0.870 | 0.830 | 0 | 20/20 |
| LaBraM + LR | 52.4 | 37.0–75.6 | 0.929 | 0.978 | 0 | 20/20 |
| CodeBrain + LR | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 25/25 † |
| Comparator | Balanced accuracy | Macro-F1 | AUROC | Targets / subjects | Holm decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exact same-parent layout-aware coordinate control | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | 5 / 253 | reject |
| Graft-EEG static | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | 5 / 253 | reject |
| CSP–LDA | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | 5 / 253 | reject |
| FBCSP–LDA | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | 5 / 253 | reject |
| Riemann–LR | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | 5 / 253 | reject |
| EEGNet | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | 5 / 253 | reject |
| Target | Seed | BA D | BA S | BA | F1 D | F1 S | AUROC D | AUROC S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNCI | 2027 | 63.310 | 64.931 | 61.234 | 63.947 | 69.688 | 70.054 | |
| BNCI | 3407 | 62.693 | 64.429 | 60.029 | 63.240 | 70.720 | 70.224 | |
| BNCI | 4513 | 64.738 | 64.660 | 63.406 | 63.684 | 69.076 | 69.882 | |
| BNCI | 5623 | 62.384 | 64.429 | 59.294 | 63.240 | 71.056 | 70.224 | |
| BNCI | 6737 | 68.557 | 66.165 | 67.474 | 65.274 | 74.157 | 71.401 | |
| Cho | 2027 | 58.073 | 56.794 | 55.579 | 54.249 | 62.714 | 60.348 |
| Target | Dynamic BA | Static BA | BIOT BA | Dynamic–BIOT | Dynamic–static | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNCI | 9 | 61.94 [56.32,73.89] | 64.72 [54.79,78.12] | 53.82 [51.39,57.99] | 7.29 [4.65,9.31] | 77.8% | [ ,1.53] | 33.3% |
| Cho | 52 | 56.88 [52.49,62.38] | 55.08 [51.46,61.45] | 49.90 [47.70,51.38] | 7.00 [2.44,13.30] | 82.7% | 1.25 [ ,2.74] | 73.1% |
| Lee | 54 | 58.08 [53.12,66.50] | 56.27 [52.64,64.75] | 51.62 [50.31,53.30] | 6.20 [3.10,13.24] | 90.7% | 0.78 [ ,1.88] | 72.2% |
| PhysioNet | 109 | 56.25 [51.61,64.35] | 54.60 [50.00,62.83] | 51.28 [48.51,55.24] | 5.89 [0.30,12.87] | 75.2% | 1.13 [ ,3.89] | 61.5% |
| Shin | 29 | 61.33 [54.67,71.33] | 59.00 [53.33,69.67] | 51.67 [48.33,56.67] | 10.00 [1.00,18.00] | 79.3% | 2.33 [0.00,4.67] | 72.4% |
| Contrast | Full [95% CI] | omit BNCI | omit Cho | omit Lee | omit PhysioNet | omit Shin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamic–BIOT | 8.182 [6.382,10.196] | 8.205 | 8.206 | 8.279 | 8.600 | 7.618 |
| Dynamic–static | 1.059 [0.013,1.892] | 1.470 | 0.985 | 1.106 | 0.941 | 0.792 |
| Head | Target | Subjects | Matched control | Graft-EEG dynamic | Effect (pp) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FI + tangent | BNCI | 9 | 59.645 | 64.336 | |
| Cho | 52 | 59.032 | 58.172 | ||
| Lee | 54 | 58.519 | 60.318 | ||
| PhysioNet | 109 | 58.930 | 58.247 | ||
| Shin | 29 | 60.862 | 63.253 | ||
| SSI + tangent | BNCI | 9 | 56.327 | 64.336 |
| Target | NLL raw | NLL cal. | Brier raw | Brier cal. | ECE raw | ECE cal. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNCI | 0.6329 | 0.6378 | 0.2212 | 0.2233 | 0.0649 | 0.0760 |
| Cho | 0.6883 | 0.6746 | 0.2457 | 0.2404 | 0.0741 | 0.0342 |
| Lee | 0.6597 | 0.6568 | 0.2338 | 0.2325 | 0.0459 | 0.0317 |
| PhysioNet | 0.6953 | 0.6754 | 0.2479 | 0.2408 | 0.0844 | 0.0374 |
| Shin | 0.6394 | 0.6480 | 0.2243 | 0.2281 | 0.0390 | 0.0578 |
| Equal-target | 0.6631 | 0.6585 | 0.2346 | 0.2330 | 0.0617 | 0.0474 |
| Condition family | BNCI | Cho | Lee | PhysioNet | Shin | Equal-target | Exec. |
| Random channel drop 25% | 75/75 | ||||||
| Random channel drop 50% | 75/75 | ||||||
| Spatial contiguous drop 25% | 25/25 | ||||||
| Noise +10 dB | 25/25 | ||||||
| Noise 0 dB | 25/25 | ||||||
| Noise dB | 25/25 |
| Strategy | Labels | BNCI | Cho | Lee | PhysioNet | Shin | Equal-target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frozen linear probe | 1% | 58.939 | 52.879 | 56.608 | 53.211 | 54.060 | 55.139 |
| 5% | 61.231 | 56.606 | 59.947 | 53.949 | 57.075 | 57.762 | |
| 10% | 63.718 | 57.856 | 60.804 | 54.934 | 58.774 | 59.217 | |
| Full GRAFT head fine-tune | 1% | 66.102 | 58.309 | 60.736 | 57.776 | 63.692 | 61.323 |
| 5% | 65.917 | 58.424 | 61.163 | 57.915 | 63.964 | 61.477 | |
| 10% | 66.887 | 58.821 | 61.398 | 57.888 | 63.614 | 61.722 |
| Strategy | Labels | BA | Macro-F1 | AUROC | ECE | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frozen linear probe | 1% | 55.139 | 54.872 | 57.149 | 28.017 | 25/25 |
| 5% | 57.762 | 57.713 | 60.836 | 19.790 | 25/25 | |
| 10% | 59.217 | 59.202 | 63.131 | 13.730 | 25/25 | |
| Full GRAFT head fine-tune | 1% | 61.323 | 61.189 | 66.096 | 4.772 | 25/25 |
| 5% | 61.477 | 61.379 | 66.221 | 3.898 | 25/25 | |
| 10% | 61.722 | 61.701 | 66.594 | 3.477 | 25/25 |
| Result type | Quantity | Estimate | Lower | Upper | Decision |
| Absolute BA | Graft-EEG dynamic | 62.359 | 59.562 | 65.239 | descriptive |
| Absolute BA | Static physics | 61.789 | 59.033 | 64.638 | descriptive |
| Preregistered contrast | Dynamic static | inconclusive | |||
| Preregistered contrast | Full physics no physics | positive |
| Target | Block | Registered | Executed | Structural N/A | Recoverable | Failure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNCI | Channel/noise | 150 | 90 | 60 | 15 | 75 |
| Negative control | 15 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 15 | |
| Reference | 20 | 15 | 5 | 15 | 0 | |
| Cho | Channel/noise | 150 | 150 | 0 | 45 | 105 |
| Negative control | 15 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 15 | |
| Reference | 20 | 15 | 5 | 15 | 0 |
| Block | Registered | Executed | N/A | Recoverable | Failure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel/noise | 750 | 600 | 150 | 152 | 448 |
| Negative control | 75 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 75 |
| Reference | 100 | 80 | 20 | 80 | 0 |
| Total | 925 | 755 | 170 | 232 | 523 |
| Family | Magnitude | Mean BA | Target range | Mean operator change | Artifact origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent tangent | 1 mm | [ ] | 0.0154 | new extension | |
| Independent tangent | 2 mm | [ ] | 0.0309 | sealed read-only reuse | |
| Independent tangent | 5 mm | [ ] | 0.0763 | sealed read-only reuse | |
| Independent tangent | 10 mm | [ ] | 0.1511 | sealed read-only reuse | |
| Independent tangent | 20 mm | [ ] | 0.2964 | new extension | |
| Rigid head-frame | 1 mm | [ ] | 0.0155 | new extension |
| Component | Setting | Selection / role |
| Preprocessing | notch; 0.5–45 Hz; 200 Hz | fixed for all datasets |
| Epoch | s; 600 samples | fixed |
| Hard channel gate | nonfinite; ; p–p | fixed before inference |
| Trial gate | inactive; at least 9 active | fixed before inference |
| Motor latent | 4 left + 4 right modes | fixed dimension |
| Transport ridge | source-selected |
| Method | BA (%) | Trainable | Fit time (s) | Timed cells | Scope / device |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graft-EEG dynamic | 60.865 | 1,281 | 289.93 [271.56, 413.96] | 25 | joint static–dynamic / CUDA |
| Graft-EEG static | 59.806 | N/R | 289.93 [271.56, 413.96] | 25 | same joint record / CUDA |
| EEGConformer | 50.448 | 64,482 | 56.19 [35.06, 67.25] | 25 | selection + freeze / CUDA |
| EEGNet | 49.901 | 1,714 | 30.94 [24.57, 37.40] | 25 | selection + freeze / CUDA |
| CSP–LDA | 50.000 | 3 | — | — | comparable timer absent |
| FBCSP–LDA | 50.005 | 9 | — | — | comparable timer absent |
| Step | Process | May read | Must emit | Failure rule |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Source fit | source signals/labels; declared geometries | checkpoint + fit metadata | target store unavailable |
| 2 | Fit barrier | all expected checkpoints | global fit manifest | any missing/hash drift stops run |
| 3 | Blind inference | sealed fits; target signals; trial masks | probabilities/logits + queue IDs | labels unavailable |
| 4 | Raw barrier | all expected raw predictions | raw-prediction manifest | any missing/hash drift stops score |
| 5 | One-shot join | raw IDs; isolated target labels | paired score source | no fit artifact is writable |
| 6 | Scorer | paired source; fixed metrics | cell metrics + subject metrics | no tuning or threshold selection |
| Object | Scientific role | Rows / cells | SHA-256 prefix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Figure2 subject pairs | Dynamic–BIOT held-out subjects | 253 rows | 0096b584532b |
| Figure2 benchmark matrix | 18 methods 5 targets | 90 rows | c53c30d75146 |
| Figure2 target effects | two contrasts 5 targets | 10 rows | 080901a117ed |
| Hierarchical summary | 20,000-replicate primary inference | 1 JSON | ad5334718806 |
| Strict target table | strict 15-method target matrix | 15 rows | a46860b6bc08 |
| Secondary paired inference | 10 comparators 3 metrics | 30 rows | 7a2d26ab3c01 |
| Method family | T/S/L | Tgt. tune | Common ch. | Tgt. geometry | Pretraining | Executed source fit | Trainable | Tgt. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graft-EEG static | none | no | no | pre, geometry only | none | 25 cells | N/R | 5/5 |
| Graft-EEG dynamic | none | no | no | pre, geometry only | none | 25 cells | 1,281 | 5/5 |
| BIOT + LR | none | no | no | fixed 18-map | clean | 25 cells | 257 | 5/5 |
| CBraMod frozen + LR | none | no | no | checkpoint map | clean | 25 cells | 201 | 5/5 |
| CBraMod source-only full FT | none | no | no | checkpoint map | clean | 25 cells | full ckpt. | 5/5 |
| EEGPT + LR | none | no | no | fixed 19-map | overlap 1/5 | 25 cells | 513 | 4/5 |
| Paper role | Code identifier | Equal-target BA |
|---|---|---|
| Main dynamic method | mosaic_dynamic | 60.865% |
| Static anchor | mosaic_static | 59.806% |
| Primary pretrained comparator | biot | 52.684% |
| Exact same-parent layout-aware coordinate control | mosaic_dynamic_exact_no_physics_missing_v2 | 50.907% |
| Matched-spectrum random operator | matched_spectrum_random | 51.167% |
| Electrode-row-shuffled operator | electrode_row_shuffle | 49.624% |