In general, the invention is directed to techniques for electrically detecting physiological events. The physiological events may include cardiac events such as R waves or p waves. In addition, the physiological events may include respiratory events. In general, the techniques involve converting an analog physiological signal to a digital delta value, correlating the digital delta value with a correlation template, and detecting a physiological event based on an output of the correlation. A digital correlation-based technique, as described herein, is implemented to reliably detecting physiological events, particularly for very small signals captured in the presence of significant background noise.