A Framework for the Comparative Assessment of Neuronal Spike Sorting Algorithms towards More Accurate Off-Line and On-Line Microelectrode Arrays Data Analysis

Figure 10

Evaluation of runtimes of the spike sorting algorithms. Runtimes measured in the experimental setup, for different lengths of input data block (ms) sent from the acquisition device to Matlab. Runtimes were measured in a worst-case scenario of high firing activity simultaneously occurring at all the 64 channels. Values related to raw data reading, filtering, spike detection, and classification with all the possible methods are reported. The runtime is related to input data block length (i.e., the time available for processing before the buffer update) and is expressed as its percentage (e.g., a runtime percentage equal to 60% for a 1 second block means that there is a margin of 400 ms for further operations). Times are for Matlab running on a quad-core 3.3 GHz CPUs desktop computer with 4 GB RAM and Windows 7 64-bit.