Spike sorting for large, dense electrode arrays

Developments in microfabrication technology have enabled the production of neural electrode arrays with hundreds of closely spaced recording sites, and electrodes with thousands of sites are under development. These probes in principle allow the simultaneous recording of very large numbers of neurons. However, use of this technology requires the development of techniques for decoding the spike times of the recorded neurons from the raw data captured from the probes. Here we present a set of tools to solve this problem, implemented in a suite of practical, user-friendly, open-source software. We validate these methods on data from the cortex, hippocampus and thalamus of rat, mouse, macaque and marmoset, demonstrating error rates as low as 5%

Velocity Dealiased Spectral Estimators of Range Migrating Targets using a Single Low-PRF Wideband Waveform

Wideband radars are promising systems that may provide numerous advantages, like simultaneous detection of slow and fast moving targets, high range-velocity resolution classification, and electronic countermeasures. Unfortunately, classical processing algorithms are challenged by the range-migration phenomenon that occurs then for fast moving targets. We propose a new approach where the range migration is used rather as an asset to retrieve information about target velocitiesand, subsequently, to obtain a velocity dealiased mode. More specifically three new complex spectral estimators are devised in case of a single low-PRF (pulse repetition frequency) wideband waveform. The new estimation schemes enable one to decrease the level of sidelobes that arise at ambiguous velocities and, thus, to enhance the discrimination capability of the radar. Synthetic data and experimental data are used to assess the performance of the proposed estimators

Fast and accurate methods of independent component analysis: A survey

summary:This paper presents a survey of recent successful algorithms for blind separation of determined instantaneous linear mixtures of independent sources such as natural speech or biomedical signals. These algorithms rely either on non-Gaussianity, nonstationarity, spectral diversity, or on a combination of them. Performance of the algorithms will be demonstrated on separation of a linear instantaneous mixture of audio signals (music, speech) and on artifact removal in electroencephalogram (EEG)

The human ECG - nonlinear deterministic versus stochastic aspects

We discuss aspects of randomness and of determinism in electrocardiographic signals. In particular, we take a critical look at attempts to apply methods of nonlinear time series analysis derived from the theory of deterministic dynamical systems. We will argue that deterministic chaos is not a likely explanation for the short time variablity of the inter-beat interval times, except for certain pathologies. Conversely, densely sampled full ECG recordings possess properties typical of deterministic signals. In the latter case, methods of deterministic nonlinear time series analysis can yield new insights.Comment: 6 pages, 9 PS figure

Adaptive Real-Time Decoding of Brain Signals for Long-Term Control of a Neuro-Prosthetic Device

Changes in the statistical properties of neural signals recorded at the brain machine interface (BMI) pose significant challenges for accurate long-term control of prostheses interfaced directly with the brain by continuously altering the relationship between neural responses and desired action. In this thesis, we develop and test an adaptive decoding algorithm that can recover from changes in the statistical properties of neural signals within minutes. The adaptive decoding algorithm uses a Kalman filter as part of a dual-filter design to continuously optimize the relationship between the observed neural responses and the desired action of the prosthesis. Performance of the algorithm was evaluated by simulating the encoding of arm movement by neurons in the primary motor cortex under stationary conditions as well as nonstationary conditions depicting loss and/or replacement of neurons in the population. The time taken for the system to fully recover (3-12 minutes) was faster than other adaptive systems (Rotermund et al 2006) and resulted in errors that were well matched to the initial system performance. The algorithm adapts to the local properties of the stimulus and is able to decode movements with high accuracy outside the trained movement space. This implementation lends itself favorably toward a portable, robust long-term decoding approach at the brain machine interface capable of providing accurate real-time decoding of neural signals over periods of weeks to months without outside intervention

Independent component approach to the analysis of EEG and MEG recordings

Multichannel recordings of the electromagnetic fields emerging from neural currents in the brain generate large amounts of data. Suitable feature extraction methods are, therefore, useful to facilitate the representation and interpretation of the data. Recently developed independent component analysis (ICA) has been shown to be an efficient tool for artifact identification and extraction from electroencephalographic (EEG) and magnetoen- cephalographic (MEG) recordings. In addition, ICA has been ap- plied to the analysis of brain signals evoked by sensory stimuli. This paper reviews our recent results in this field

Tensor based singular spectrum analysis for automatic scoring of sleep EEG

A new supervised approach for decomposition of single channel signal mixtures is introduced in this paper. The performance of the traditional singular spectrum analysis (SSA) algorithm is significantly improved by applying tensor decomposition instead of traditional singular value decomposition (SVD). As another contribution to this subspace analysis method, the inherent frequency diversity of the data has been effectively exploited to highlight the subspace of interest. As an important application, sleep EEG has been analysed and the stages of sleep for the subjects in normal condition, with sleep restriction, and with sleep extension have been accurately estimated and compared with the results of sleep scoring by clinical experts