ABSTRACT
Action potentials (AP) are often considered the basic units of neural signaling. They can be recorded extracellularly as potential waveforms, called “spikes.” These are remarkably similar in overall shape, permitting them to be distinguished from noise, yet possessing modulations of amplitude and form, the consequences of cell type, size, and electrode position, which permit them to be sorted into multiple classes. Often it is assumed that all the spikes from a class are the result of the activity of a single neuron which, since it usually cannot be physically localized, is known by the anonymous name of a “unit.” By recording the behavior of multiple neurons simultaneously, the discrimination of single units or neurons, also known as spike sorting, offers experimenters the promise of a multiplication of their experimental efforts and the gaining of insight into the role of spatio-temporal correlation of neuronal firing.
