Tags: dataformat blackrock lfp spike

Getting started with Blackrock data

The specifications of the Blackrock file formats can be found on the company’s website. Blackrock files come in 2 flavors. One file type has the extension .nev, and contains information about extracellularly recorded spiking activity. The other file type has as extension .nsX, with X any number between 1 and 9. These files contain continuously sampled data, e.g., local field potentials.

To read Blackrock data, you will need the NPMK toolbox. The latest version is available from https://github.com/BlackrockMicrosystems/NPMK.

Set the path

To get started, you should add the FieldTrip main directory to your path, and execute the ft_defaults function, which sets the defaults and configures up the minimal required path settings. See also this frequently asked question.

addpath <path_to_fieldtrip>
ft_defaults

Reading spike data

To read spike data from .nev files, you would do the following

spike = ft_read_spike('yourfile.nev')

This returns the spike timestamps and waveforms in a format according to ft_datatype_spike.

Reading continuous LFP data

To read continuous LFP data from .nsX files, you can use the following high-level FieldTrip code

cfg = [];
cfg.dataset = 'yourfile.nsX'
% you can specify additional preprocessing options, such as filters
data = ft_preprocessing(cfg)

This returns the LFP data in a format according to ft_datatype_raw.

You can also use the low-level reading functions like this

hdr = ft_read_header ('yourfile.nsX')
dat = ft_read_data   ('yourfile.nsX')
evt = ft_read_event  ('yourfile.nev')  % note that the nsX file does not contain trigger events, but the corresponding nev file does

See this FAQ for more details about the high-level and low-level functions.