A clinically effective spike recognition program: its use at electrocorticography.

This automated system detects spikes when the first derivative value of the EEG or ECoG signal exceeds a user-determined threshold twice, with reversal of direction, within 30--80 msec. The EEGer selects this threshold by his assessment of the system's initial performance in a recording situation. By combining the spike detecting abilities of both the EEGer and computer, two tasks can be accomplished on-line for 16-channel EEG or ECoG: (1) localization of the origin of widely synchronous spikes, and (2) assessment of the relative quantities of spikes emanating from several active regions. This system achieved a human-computer correlation ranging from 0.79 to 0.84.