Signal decomposition aims to separate individual components comprising an observed signal.
There is an assumption that the components can be distinguished in some manner. Even with the assumption of clustered time-frequency energy, we are still not in a position to readily perform decomposition. We need to make the definition of a component more concrete, whilst avoiding imposing unnecessary constraints on what a component may be. The energetic modelling approach more fully exploits the time-frequency localisation assumption without requiring that components belong to a small family of signals. His thesis focused on time-frequency modelling and its application in the analysis of neurophysiological data.