Research Appraisals

Biomedical physics & engineering express

MELF: a multi-view ensemble learning framework for normative resting state EEG signal quality assessment

Normative resting-state electroencephalography (rsEEG), defined as standardized recordings from healthy populations, provides essential baselines for studying brain mechanisms and psychiatric disorders. However, its reliability critically depends on rigorous quality assessment, as artifacts or over-processing can distort subsequent analyses. Current approaches often rely on single-feature perspectives, which fail to capture the multidimensional nature of signal quality. We propose MELF, a quality assessment framework for normative rsEEG that systematically integrates three complementary feature domains: time domain (mobility, complexity), frequency domain (-band relative power, parallel log spectra index (PaLOSi)), and spatial domain (-band directed phase lag index, bad channel ratio, ICLabel-classified brain component proportion). A random forest-based ensemble classifier is constructed using dynamic weight allocation based on cross-validation accuracy (Acc). Experiments on four open rsEEG datasets (DSTR, TRCS, LEMON, and HBN) and expert-annotated clinical data demonstrate that: (1) MELF achieves up to 10% Acc improvement over single-view methods; (2) MELF outperforms traditional machine learning and deep learning baselines while reducing computational time, reaching 97.69% Acc (AUC = 0.9957), and maintains strong performance on an independent test set (92% Acc, AUC = 0.88); (3) the spectral view contributes the most, confirming the evaluative capability of the PaLOSi. MELF provides an interpretable, high-Acc, and robust automated framework for normative rsEEG quality assessment, with broad applications in neuroscience research and clinical quality control.