Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatus for identifying spectral peaks in a neuronal spiking representation of a signal, such as an auditory signal. One example method generally includes receiving a signal; filtering the signal into a plurality of channels using a plurality of filters having different frequency passbands; sending the filtered signal in each of the channels to a first type of spiking neuron model; sending the filtered signal in each of the channels to a second type of spiking neuron model; and identifying one or more spectral peaks in the signal based on a first output of the first type of spiking neuron model and a second output of the second type of spiking neuron model for each of the channels.