# MerGen: Micro-electrode recording synthesis using a generative data-driven approach

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.16928 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16928/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 8 of its 20 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Mar 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Neural Discrete Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.00937/) (2017)
- [Jukebox: A Generative Model for Music](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.00341/) (2020)
- [MelGAN: Generative Adversarial Networks for Conditional Waveform Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.06711/) (2019)
- [Generative Adversarial Network in Medical Imaging: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.07294/) (2018)
- [Synthesis of Realistic ECG using Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.09150/) (2019)
- [A Survey on Audio Synthesis and Audio-Visual Multimodal Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.00443/) (2021)
- [KaraSinger: Score-Free Singing Voice Synthesis with VQ-VAE using Mel-spectrograms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.04005/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The analysis of electrophysiological data is crucial for certain surgical procedures such as deep brain stimulation, which has been adopted for the treatment of a variety of neurological disorders. During the procedure, auditory analysis of these signals helps the clinical team to infer the neuroanatomical location of the stimulation electrode and thus optimize clinical outcomes. This task is complex, and requires an expert who in turn requires significant training. In this paper, we propose a generative neural network, called MerGen, capable of simulating de novo electrophysiological recordings, with a view to providing a realistic learning tool for clinicians trainees for identifying these signals. We demonstrate that the generated signals are perceptually indistinguishable from real signals by experts in the field, and that it is even possible to condition the generation efficiently to provide a didactic simulator adapted to a particular surgical scenario. The efficacy of this conditioning is demonstrated, comparing it to intra-observer and inter-observer variability amongst experts. We also demonstrate the use of this network for data augmentation for automatic signal classification which can play a role in decision-making support in the operating theatre.