Taller Peaks: an improved spike detection algorithm that simultaneously reduces type I and type II errors for Wave_clus

Abstract

Wave_clus is an unsupervised spike detection and sorting algorithm that has been used in dozens of experimental studies as a spike sorting tool. It is often used as a benchmark for comparing the performance of new spike sorting algorithms. For these reasons, the spike detection performance of Wave_clus is important for both experimental and computational studies that involve spike sorting. Two measures of spike detection performance are the number of false positive detections (type I error) and the number of missed spikes (type II error). Here, a new spike detection algorithm is proposed that reduces the number of misses and false positives of Wave_clus in a widely used simulated data set across the entire range of commonly used detection thresholds. The algorithm accepts a spike if its amplitude is larger than the amplitude of its two immediate neighbors, where an immediate neighbor is the nearest peak of the same polarity within 1 refractory period. The simultaneous reduction that is achieved in the number of false positives and misses is important for experimental and computational studies that use Wave_clus as a spike sorting tool or as a benchmark. A software patch that incorporates the algorithm into Wave_clus as an optional spike detection algorithm is provided.