A new interpretation of nonlinear energy operator and its efficacy in spike detection

A nonlinear energy operator (NEO) gives an estimate of the energy content of a linear oscillator. This has been used to quantify the AM-FM modulating signals present in a sinusoid. Here, the authors give a new interpretation of NEO and extend its use in stochastic signals. They show that NEO accentuates the high-frequency content. This instantaneous nature of NEO and its very low computational burden make it an ideal tool for spike detection. The efficacy of the proposed method has been tested with simulated signals as well as with real electroencephalograms (EEGs).