Multisegment sorting: combining sorting results

Hi,

We are considering having huge recordings (maybe like 24h), but we would like to not save the whole 24h for space reasons. We can compute "relevant" portions of this 24h recordings (using animal behavior information) that may total to 2h. We would like to store each of these portions as different segments, but most current sorting algorithms do not handle multisegment sorting.

Of course, we could also first sort the full recording and keep the results of the sorting, and only then remove the useless segments. However:

• Sorting will take much longer than the individual sorting of the segments.
• Should we need to spikesort again for whatever reason, the current spikesorting is not reproducible.

It may be a hard task, but is there current work in progress an algorithm that given the spikesorting results of multiple segments and perhaps the segments themselves returns a common spikesorting for all the segments (matches the neurons from one segment with the neurons of the other segments) ? If such an algorithm would need features of what happens between the segments (multiunit activity as 1kz, ...) that could be possible for us, though it would diminish its generality.

Of course, this would be a hard task and maybe not entirely in the scope of spikeinterface, so my main question is whether there is current work in progress for such an algorithm. If so in an external library, could we consider wrapping it ?

No file, test, or entry point is named. Start by reviewing the existing sorting algorithms and any current multisegment work, then investigate whether an external library could be wrapped. Done would require an agreed algorithm and scope for combining sorting results across segments.