Complete neural signal processing and analysis: Zero to hero (Udemy.com)
Learn signal processing and statistics using brain electrical data with expert instruction and code challenges in MATLAB
Created by: Mike X Cohen
Last updated August 2026
Our take
Based on the ratings of 2,013 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in August 2026. No course pays to be reviewed.
Mike X Cohen's course teaches signal processing and non-parametric statistics using brain electrical data, all in MATLAB or Octave. It runs 46.9 hours across 233 lectures and 14 sections, and the syllabus shows three big blocks: spectral and time-frequency analysis, synchronization (connectivity), and permutation-based statistics. It is aimed at neuroscience students and anyone curious about applied signal processing, though the brain data is really the example material for the methods.
Reviewers keep coming back to the teaching. Words like precise, structured and energetic show up, and one person with a signal processing master's calls it probably the best course on the topic they have taken, even counting their own university lectures. Reviewers say the complex methods are easy to follow, and one notes a good level of redundancy on some topics. Another got plenty out of it with minimal coding experience. Of 2,013 ratings, 1,409 are five stars and only nine are one or two stars. The sample we have shows no clear complaint.
It was last updated in August 2026, so it is current, and 12,425 students have joined. At 46.9 hours it is a long haul, and the description says doing every exercise could push it past 100 hours. Basic MATLAB is a hard requirement, and total beginners are told to take an intro course first. For anyone who wants real depth in spectral analysis and permutation testing, this looks like an easy yes. For a quick overview, it is too much.
Pros
- Spectral, time-frequency and synchronization analysis take up most of the 46.9 hours
- Reviewers call the teaching precise and structured, and say complex methods stay easy to follow
- Two sections on permutation-based statistics cover non-parametric testing in real depth
- Refreshed in August 2026, with a 4.8 rating from 2,013 reviews
Cons
- 46.9 hours of video, and doing every exercise could push it far past that
- Needs MATLAB or Octave and basic coding skills before the first lecture
- No quizzes on Udemy, so practice rests on the MATLAB challenges in the lectures
This was a great course, even for someone with minimal coding experience!
Listed for all levels, but it assumes basic MATLAB (variables, loops, plotting); no neuroscience or math background is needed.
What you will learn
- Signal processing
- Time series data analysis
- Statistics (non-parametric)
- Neuroscience (brain science)
- Spectral analysis application
- Applied math
Course content
14 sections · 233 lectures · 47 hours of video 14 articles
- 1Introduction 1 free preview5 lectures · 39 min
- 2The basics of neural signal processing 1 free preview18 lectures · 4.5 hours
- 3Simulating time series signals and noise13 lectures · 2 hours
- 4Time-domain analyses 1 free preview11 lectures · 1.7 hours
- 5Static spectral analysis 2 free previews38 lectures · 7.7 hours
- 6More on static spectral analyses13 lectures · 1.8 hours
- 7Time-frequency analysis 1 free preview42 lectures · 10 hours
- 8More on time-frequency analysis 1 free preview19 lectures · 2.9 hours
- 9Synchronization analyses 1 free preview24 lectures · 6 hours
- 10More on synchronization analyses 1 free preview13 lectures · 2.2 hours
- 11Permutation-based statistics 1 free preview17 lectures · 3.8 hours
- 12More on permutation testing statistics 1 free preview10 lectures · 2 hours
- 13Multivariate components analysis 1 free preview9 lectures · 1.3 hours
- 14Bonus section1 lecture
Who it is for
The instructor says it suits
- Anyone interested in applied signal processing
- Interested in non-parametric statistics
- Existing or aspiring neuroscience students
- Anyone who wants to know what brain electrical signals look like
What you need before you start
- Basic MATLAB knowledge
- Access to MATLAB or Octave
Course Description
Use your brain to learn signal processing, data analysis, and statistics... by learning about brains!
If you are reading this, I guess you have a brain. Your brain generates electrical signals that can be measured using electrodes, which are like small antennas. These electrical signals are rreeeeeaaallly complicated, because the brain is really complicated!
But learning how to analyze brain electrical signals is an amazing and fascinating way to learn about signal processing, data visualization, spectral analysis, synchronization (connectivity) analyses, and statistics (in particular, permutation-based statistics).
What do you get in this course?
This course contains over 46 hours of video instruction, plus TONS of MATLAB exercises, problem sets, and challenges.
If you do all the MATLAB exercises, this course is easily well over 100 hours of educational content.
And you get access to the Q&A forum, where you can post specific questions about the course material and I answer as quickly as I can (typically 1-2 days).
By the end of this course, you will have confidence in processing, cleaning, analyzing, and performing statistics on brain electrical activity.
What do you need to know before joining this course?
I have tried to make this course accessible to anyone who is interested in learning neural signal processing and time series analysis.
I believe you can simply start this course without any formal background in neuroscience/biology, and without any background in signal processing/math/statistics. That said, some background in these topics will definitely be helpful.
However, I do assume that you have access to MATLAB (or Octave), and that you have some basic MATLAB coding skills (variables, for-loops, basic plotting). If you are a total noob to MATLAB, then please first take an intro-MATLAB course and then come back here.
Why should you trust this weird Mike X Cohen guy?
I've been teaching this material for almost 20 years. I'm really dedicated to teaching and I work really hard to improve my courses each year.
Check out the reviews of this course and my other courses to see what my students think of my teaching style and dedication.
I've also written several textbooks on neural data analysis and scientific programming. And there are more books and more courses on the way!
... but you have to watch out for my weird sense of humor. You've been warned...
Instructor Details
- 4.8 Rating
2,013 Reviews
Mike X Cohen
I am a full-time educator and writer, and former professor of neuroscience. I "retired" from that position so I could focus my time and energy creating high-quality educational material just for you.
I have 20 years of experience teaching programming, data analysis, signal processing, statistics, linear algebra, and experiment design. I've taught undergraduate students, PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and full professors. I have taught in "traditional" university courses, special week-long intensive courses, and Nobel prize-winning research labs. I have >100 hours of online lectures on neuroscience data analysis that you can find on my website and youtube channel. And I've written several technical books about these topics with a few more on the way.
I'm not trying to show off -- I'm trying to convince you that you've come to the right place to maximize your learning from an instructor who has spent two decades refining and perfecting his teaching style.
Over 350,000 students have watched over 50,000,000 minutes of my courses. Come find out why!
I have several free courses that you can enroll in. Try them out! You got nothing to lose ;)
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By popular request, here are suggested course progressions for various educational goals:
MATLAB programming: Get Started with MATLAB; Master MATLAB; Image Processing
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Reviews
By Antonios Chatzipanagiotou on 12/19/2024
I donnot understand how such value is given at such a low price. If anyone is skeprical about taking the course, you should know that EVERYTHING WILL BE EXPLAINED. I find myself always wanting to know every component of a process and that is also how I am able to learn and recall it, as I connect it from node to node. If this is something you also want, then TAKE THE COURSE. Worth it completely!
By Patrik Simko on 3/5/2024
One of the most comprehensive courses (if not the best one concerning the balance between complexity and usefulness) on neural signal processing. Easy to follow and full of details. The only drawback is that some of the presentations are almost redundant (time-freq vs. more on time-freq analysis - some parts of the presentation are quite similar - but of course repetition is important and some of the videos provide more insight/or elaborate more on the topic). Still 5*
By Stanisław Adamczyk on 1/15/2024
It was very good but some explanations weren't complete so I've missed some concepts that I could've learned
By Anna Aleksandra Kaszyńska on 6/3/2022
One of the best investment in self development! Not only by showing and explaining everything deeply and with great efforts+attention, but it's also helping to broaden one's own horizons and enlarge one's own knowledge regarding brain activity not only by carrying out computational neuroscientific analyses, but by seeing it as well as a global "neuro-system" of dynamic connections.
By Maitha Shehab Khanji on 3/19/2022
This course saved me in my Master's thesis which is about detecting a kind of disorder in EEG signals using AI (deep learning). Most of the research papers in this problem talk about the endless EEG signal processing methods, which I had zero knowledge about since my background is computer science. Thankfully, watching 35% only of this course helped me understand the topic which enabled me to understand and analyze papers confidently. Thank you very much Dr. Cohen for all the knowledge and the fantastic way of explaining and simplifying these complex concepts and for your great book "Analyzing Neural Time Series Data". I cited it and cited this course in the dissertation, which I am implementing now. I definitely recommend this course!!
By Chenshuai on 1/18/2022
This is definitely the best online course I've ever enrolled ! I am just so sad that I only one more lecture away towards the end of this journey. I could not expect more for an online course of such complicated concepts and practices. I bought another three related courses by Dr. Mike in the middle of this course. The most worthy choices I have made in 2022. Couldn't wait for more lectures from Dr. Mike and hope one day I could have a chance to attend some on-site lectures. Last but not least, five stars to your humor!
By Kenzo Kosugi on 3/5/2021
I was interested in EEG analysis, but there were no good textbooks in Japanese. When I was in trouble, I found this video, and it taught me exactly what I wanted to know, and I learned a lot.
By Neri Baker on 12/22/2020
This course was well-presented and covered many, many useful topics. As well as learning to do relevant analyses and assess them statistically, it was valuable and fascinating to learn a range of techniques to simulate and display the data. Learning through coding was effective (and fun!) – through finding the intentional gaps/issues in the code for lectures and completing projects at the end of each section. I am very grateful that this course was available. (btw, I had already completed Mike’s courses on linear algebra and Fourier transforms. They were helpful foundations for this course, because my university-level maths had faded and I hadn’t used MATLAB.)
By Mark Jaime on 10/30/2020
It's a great course in my opinion. Mike's explanation of the concepts and mechanisms involved in time frequency analysis is both straightforward and easy to follow. As a MATLAB novice, I particularly find the MATLAB videos extremely useful albeit somewhat overwhelming a times. I guess there is no easy way to learn to code in MATLAB but this is a great resource to do so. Overall, I rate this course 5 stars.
By Ines Caetano on 2/26/2019
I'm doing a PhD in neuroscience focused in electrophysiology and data analysis. This course is helping me a lot in terms of programming, simulating signals to test my algorithms and it covers the basics of analysis both for time and frequency domains. The teacher is amazing and if you are working in the field this is an amaizing tool to remember concepts and learn new ones. For sure I recomend this course!
Quality Score
No CourseDuck member has rated this course yet. Taken it? Give each part a thumbs up or down.
Overall Score : 96 / 100











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