Techniques and mechanisms for processing differential video data with a spiking neural network to provide action recognition functionality. In an embodiment, the spiking neural network is coupled to receive and process a first one or more spike trains which represent an encoded version of a sequence comprising frames of differential video data. In turn, the frames of differential video data are each based on a difference between a respective two frames of raw video data. Based on the processing of the first one or more spike trains, the spiking neural network may output a second one or more spike trains. In another embodiment, the second one or more spike trains are provided to train the spiked neural network to recognize an activity type, or to classify a video sequence as including a representation of an instance of the activity type.