Genetic algorithm and forward method for feature selection in EEG feature space

There are a lot of problems that arise in the process of building a brain-computer interface based on electroencephalographic signals (EEG). A huge imbalance between a number of experiments possible to conduct and the size of feature space, containing features extracted from recorded signals, is one of them. To reduce this imbalance, it is necessary to apply methods for feature selection. One of the approaches for feature selection, often taken in brain-computer interface researches, is a classic genetic algorithm that codes all features within each individual. In this study, there will be shown, that although this approach allows obtaining a set of features of high classification precision, it also leads to a feature set highly redundant comparing to a set of features selected using a forward selection method or a genetic algorithm equipped with individuals of a given (very small) number of genes.