# Graph Adapter of EEG Foundation Models for Parameter Efficient Fine Tuning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.16155 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16155/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 17 of its 26 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Nov 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09685/) (2021)
- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Graph Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10903/) (2017)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [wav2vec 2.0: A Framework for Self-Supervised Learning of Speech Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11477/) (2020)
- [BENDR: using transformers and a contrastive self-supervised learning task to learn from massive amounts of EEG data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.12037/) (2021)
- [Harnessing Explanations: LLM-to-LM Interpreter for Enhanced Text-Attributed Graph Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.19523/) (2023)
- [BrainBERT: Self-supervised representation learning for intracranial recordings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.14367/) (2023)
- [Can GNN be Good Adapter for LLMs?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.12984/) (2024)
- [MAEEG: Masked Auto-encoder for EEG Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.02625/) (2022)
- [EEG2Rep: Enhancing Self-supervised EEG Representation Through Informative Masked Inputs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17772/) (2024)
- [EEG-GNN: Graph Neural Networks for Classification of Electroencephalogram (EEG) Signals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09135/) (2021)
- [BrainWave: A Brain Signal Foundation Model for Clinical Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10251/) (2024)
- [G-Adapter: Towards Structure-Aware Parameter-Efficient Transfer Learning for Graph Transformer Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10329/) (2023)
- [EEG-GCNN: Augmenting Electroencephalogram-based Neurological Disease Diagnosis using a Domain-guided Graph Convolutional Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12107/) (2020)
- [mdx: A Cloud Platform for Supporting Data Science and Cross-Disciplinary Research Collaborations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.14188/) (2022)
- [A Survey of Spatio-Temporal EEG data Analysis: from Models to Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08224/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [REVE: A Foundation Model for EEG -- Adapting to Any Setup with Large-Scale Pretraining on 25,000 Subjects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.21585/) (2025)
- [Cross-Subject Generalization for EEG Decoding: A Survey of Deep Learning Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.27033/) (2026)
- [Lightweight Adaptation of EEG Foundation Models for Stroke Motor Imagery Decoding: Domain Shift and Subject-Level Robustness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.00282/) (2026)
- [Parameter-Efficient Self-Supervised Adaptation for EEG-FM under Fixed Computational Budgets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.24727/) (2026)
- [ZeroMAG: Zero-Shot Multimodal Adapter Generation for Plug-and-Play EEG Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.03546/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In diagnosing neurological disorders from electroencephalography (EEG) data, foundation models such as Transformers have been employed to capture temporal dynamics. Additionally, Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are critical for representing the spatial relationships among EEG sensors. However, fine-tuning these large-scale models for both temporal and spatial features can be prohibitively large in computational cost, especially under the limited availability of labeled EEG datasets. We propose EEG-GraphAdapter (EGA), a parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) approach designed to address these challenges. EGA is integrated into a pre-trained temporal backbone model as a GNN-based module, freezing the backbone and allowing only the adapter to be fine-tuned. This enables the effective acquisition of EEG spatial representations, significantly reducing computational overhead and data requirements. Experimental evaluations on two healthcare-related downstream tasks-Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Abnormality Detection (TUAB)-show that EGA improves performance by up to 16.1% in F1-score compared with the backbone BENDR model, highlighting its potential for scalable and accurate EEG-based predictions.