Getting Started

FieldTrip is a MATLAB toolbox that contains a set of separate (high-level) functions, it does not have a graphical user interface. The toolbox functions can be combined into an analysis pipeline, i.e. a MATLAB script containing all steps of your analysis. For this reason, if you are new to MATLAB scripting or EEG/MEG/iEEG/NIRS analysis, FieldTrip might not be the most efficient for you. If you are persistent and eager to learn, references to review papers and teaching material can help you on your way.

For a general overview of how FieldTrip is designed, please have a look at the reference paper. By far the best way to get hands-on experience with FieldTrip is by following the tutorials, the walkthrough and through the other documentation. If you have questions that are not answered by the documentation or in the FAQ, you can register on the email list and ask the other users and the developers for help. Also, FieldTripping is not something you do alone; inform yourself about colleagues that use (or want to use) FieldTrip.

We organize FieldTrip workshops and a yearly “Advanced EEG/MEG analysis” toolkit course at the Donders Institute in which we lecture and give hands-on training sessions. Attending one of these will probably benefit your understanding and analysis skills. You can also watch online video lectures that were recorded at previous workshops.

If you are eager to get started with your specific data, please proceed to the user documentation section on importing your own data.

In general you should get started with the tutorials. The pages that are listed below only serve to explain system specific details and peculiarities, but lack the complete overview that the tutorials provide.

Getting started with particular MEG data types

Getting started with particular EEG data types

Getting started with intracranial data

Getting started with NIRS data

Getting started with eyetracker data

Getting started with motion capture data

Getting started with other types of data

Getting started with (data from) other software

Getting started with real-time data analysis