A method of recognizing speech. The method includes the steps of obtaining an auditory signal; processing the auditory signal into a plurality of frequency components; processing the plurality of frequency components using a plurality of feature detectors, each feature detector producing a feature detector response; generating a spike for each instance in which a feature detector response identifies a characteristic auditory feature to produce a test spike pattern for the auditory signal; and comparing the test spike pattern to a plurality of predetermined spike patterns corresponding to a plurality of speech elements to determine whether the auditory signal includes one of the plurality of speech elements.