Background: Extracellular recordings of multi-unit neural activity have become indispensable in neuro-
science research. The analysis of the recordings begins with the detection of the action potentials (APs),
followed by a classification step where each AP is associated with a given neural source. A feature extrac-
tion step is required prior to classification in order to reduce the dimensionality of the data and the impact
of noise, allowing source clustering algorithms to work more efficiently.
New method: In this paper, we propose a novel framework for multi-sensor AP feature extraction based
on the so-called Matched Subspace Detector (MSD), which is shown to be a natural generalization of
standard single-sensor algorithms.
Results: Clustering using both simulated data and real AP recordings taken in the locust antennal lobe
demonstrates that the proposed approach yields features that are discriminatory and lead to promising
results.
Comparison with existing method(s): Unlike existing methods, the proposed algorithm finds joint spatio-
temporal feature vectors that match the dominant subspace observed in the two-dimensional data
without needs for a forward propagation model and AP templates.
Conclusions: The proposed MSD approach provides more discriminatory features for unsupervised AP
sorting applications.