The Role of Review Process Failures in Affective State Estimation: An Empirical Investigation of DEAP Dataset

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Main Authors: Khan, Nazmun N, Sweet, Taylor, Harvey, Chase A, Knapp, Calder, Krusienski, Dean J., Thompson, David E
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Khan, Nazmun N
Sweet, Taylor
Harvey, Chase A
Knapp, Calder
Krusienski, Dean J.
Thompson, David E
author_facet Khan, Nazmun N
Sweet, Taylor
Harvey, Chase A
Knapp, Calder
Krusienski, Dean J.
Thompson, David E
contents The reliability of affective state estimation using EEG data is in question, given the variability in reported performance and the lack of standardized evaluation protocols. To investigate this, we reviewed 101 studies, focusing on the widely used DEAP dataset for emotion recognition. Our analysis revealed widespread methodological issues that include data leakage from improper segmentation, biased feature selection, flawed hyperparameter optimization, neglect of class imbalance, and insufficient methodological reporting. Notably, we found that nearly 87% of the reviewed papers contained one or more of these errors. Moreover, through experimental analysis, we observed that such methodological flaws can inflate the classification accuracy by up to 46%. These findings reveal fundamental gaps in standardized evaluation practices and highlight critical deficiencies in the peer review process for machine learning applications in neuroscience, emphasizing the urgent need for stricter methodological standards and evaluation protocols.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_02417
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Role of Review Process Failures in Affective State Estimation: An Empirical Investigation of DEAP Dataset
Khan, Nazmun N
Sweet, Taylor
Harvey, Chase A
Knapp, Calder
Krusienski, Dean J.
Thompson, David E
Signal Processing
Machine Learning
The reliability of affective state estimation using EEG data is in question, given the variability in reported performance and the lack of standardized evaluation protocols. To investigate this, we reviewed 101 studies, focusing on the widely used DEAP dataset for emotion recognition. Our analysis revealed widespread methodological issues that include data leakage from improper segmentation, biased feature selection, flawed hyperparameter optimization, neglect of class imbalance, and insufficient methodological reporting. Notably, we found that nearly 87% of the reviewed papers contained one or more of these errors. Moreover, through experimental analysis, we observed that such methodological flaws can inflate the classification accuracy by up to 46%. These findings reveal fundamental gaps in standardized evaluation practices and highlight critical deficiencies in the peer review process for machine learning applications in neuroscience, emphasizing the urgent need for stricter methodological standards and evaluation protocols.
title The Role of Review Process Failures in Affective State Estimation: An Empirical Investigation of DEAP Dataset
topic Signal Processing
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02417