aspg-41-4204-1792223526 20261017075206 American Scientific Publishing Group admin@americaspg.com American Scientific Publishing Group Metaheuristic Optimization Review MOR 3066-280X 2026 5 2 Ahmed EL-Emam Hossam El-Din Moustafa W. Mustafa Islam Ismael EL-Sayed M.El-Kenawy Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems based on electroencephalography (EEG) are applications that allow human-to-machine communication with intuitive (near-transparent) control, whose neural commands are decoded based on intentional movement. Recent research on the topic of machine learning (ML) has been able to greatly enhance the classification of the EEG-signals associated with the movement of the hands, head movements, and mobility movements of the eyes. The developments allow various utilization across assistive technologies, prosthetic control, and non-verbal communication. EEG, however, is highly non-stationery and noise-sensitive, so advanced preprocessing and optimization methods have to be applied to optimize performance in classification. This paper outlines an in-depth review of some of the most popular ML algorithms, i.e. support vector machines (SVMs), convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and recurrent neural networks (RNNs), and optimization methods, i.e., genetic algorithms (GAs), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and transfer learning. We point out existing problems in the processing of EEG signals and suggest directions in the future that will improve the robustness, generalization, and real-time behavior of BCI. 2026 01 15 4204 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 10.54216/MOR.050201 https://americaspg.com/journal/41/article/4204 https://americaspg.com/storage/articles/manuscripts/01KTFY35XTE9A0SN7KHHZHXE6B.pdf