# Semi-Supervised Dual-Stream Self-Attentive Adversarial Graph Contrastive Learning for Cross-Subject EEG-based Emotion Recognition

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.11635 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11635/

## Key facts

- Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 27 of its 76 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Aug 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04805/) (2018)
- [Domain-Adversarial Training of Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.07818/) (2015)
- [Convolutional Neural Networks on Graphs with Fast Localized Spectral Filtering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.09375/) (2016)
- [FixMatch: Simplifying Semi-Supervised Learning with Consistency and Confidence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.07685/) (2020)
- [MixMatch: A Holistic Approach to Semi-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.02249/) (2019)
- [Graph Contrastive Learning with Augmentations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.13902/) (2020)
- [Deep CORAL: Correlation Alignment for Deep Domain Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.01719/) (2016)
- [Simple and Deep Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.02133/) (2020)
- [Deep Domain Confusion: Maximizing for Domain Invariance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.3474/) (2014)
- [FlexMatch: Boosting Semi-Supervised Learning with Curriculum Pseudo Labeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08263/) (2021)
- [Return of Frustratingly Easy Domain Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.05547/) (2015)
- [SoftMatch: Addressing the Quantity-Quality Trade-off in Semi-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.10921/) (2023)
- [Generalizing to unseen domains via distribution matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.00804/) (2019)
- [AdaMatch: A Unified Approach to Semi-Supervised Learning and Domain Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.04732/) (2021)
- [EEG-Based Emotion Recognition Using Regularized Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.07835/) (2019)
- [Contrastive Learning of Subject-Invariant EEG Representations for Cross-Subject Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.09559/) (2021)
- [Transfer Learning for EEG-Based Brain-Computer Interfaces: A Review of Progress Made Since 2016](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.06286/) (2020)
- [Domain Adversarial Neural Networks for Domain Generalization: When It Works and How to Improve](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.03924/) (2021)
- [A Novel Bi-hemispheric Discrepancy Model for EEG Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.01704/) (2019)
- [MS-MDA: Multisource Marginal Distribution Adaptation for Cross-subject and Cross-session EEG Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.07740/) (2021)
- [Cascade and Parallel Convolutional Recurrent Neural Networks on EEG-based Intention Recognition for Brain Computer Interface](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.06578/) (2017)
- [Pre-training of Graph Neural Network for Modeling Effects of Mutations on Protein-Protein Binding Affinity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.12473/) (2020)
- [EEGFuseNet: Hybrid Unsupervised Deep Feature Characterization and Fusion for High-Dimensional EEG with An Application to Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.03777/) (2021)
- [PARSE: Pairwise Alignment of Representations in Semi-Supervised EEG Learning for Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.05400/) (2022)
- [DAGAM: A Domain Adversarial Graph Attention Model for Subject Independent EEG-Based Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.12948/) (2022)
- [Holistic Semi-Supervised Approaches for EEG Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.11732/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [M3D: Manifold-based Domain Adaptation with Dynamic Distribution for Non-Deep Transfer Learning in Cross-subject and Cross-session EEG-based Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15615/) (2024)
- [PhysioSync: Temporal and Cross-Modal Contrastive Learning Inspired by Physiological Synchronization for EEG-Based Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.17163/) (2025)
- [NSSI-Net: A Multi-Concept GAN for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Detection Using High-Dimensional EEG in a Semi-Supervised Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.12159/) (2024)
- [PL-DCP: A Pairwise Learning framework with Domain and Class Prototypes for EEG emotion recognition under unseen target conditions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.00082/) (2024)
- [Unsupervised Pairwise Learning Optimization Framework for Cross-Corpus EEG-Based Emotion Recognition Based on Prototype Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.11663/) (2025)
- [Learning Domain- and Class-Disentangled Prototypes for Domain-Generalized EEG Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.01135/) (2025)
- [Boundary-aware Prototype-driven Adversarial Alignment for Cross-Corpus EEG Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.26713/) (2026)
- [LI-DSN: A Layer-wise Interactive Dual-Stream Network for EEG Decoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.01889/) (2026)
- [BioFormer: Rethinking Cross-Subject Generalization via Spectral Structural Alignment in Biomedical Time-Series](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22468/) (2026)
- [PRISM: Prioritized Channel Importance with Semi-supervised Domain Adaptation for Cross-Subject EEG Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.00358/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Electroencephalography (EEG) is an objective tool for emotion recognition with promising applications. However, the scarcity of labeled data remains a major challenge in this field, limiting the widespread use of EEG-based emotion recognition. In this paper, a semi-supervised Dual-stream Self-Attentive Adversarial Graph Contrastive learning framework (termed as DS-AGC) is proposed to tackle the challenge of limited labeled data in cross-subject EEG-based emotion recognition. The DS-AGC framework includes two parallel streams for extracting non-structural and structural EEG features. The non-structural stream incorporates a semi-supervised multi-domain adaptation method to alleviate distribution discrepancy among labeled source domain, unlabeled source domain, and unknown target domain. The structural stream develops a graph contrastive learning method to extract effective graph-based feature representation from multiple EEG channels in a semi-supervised manner. Further, a self-attentive fusion module is developed for feature fusion, sample selection, and emotion recognition, which highlights EEG features more relevant to emotions and data samples in the labeled source domain that are closer to the target domain. Extensive experiments conducted on two benchmark databases (SEED and SEED-IV) using a semi-supervised cross-subject leave-one-subject-out cross-validation evaluation scheme show that the proposed model outperforms existing methods under different incomplete label conditions (with an average improvement of 5.83% on SEED and 6.99% on SEED-IV), demonstrating its effectiveness in addressing the label scarcity problem in cross-subject EEG-based emotion recognition.