Importing your data
FieldTrip has a generic mechanism for reading data from a file. Within FieldTrip there is no difference in how the data from one file format is treated, compared to another file format. Many EEG, MEG and electrophysiology file formats are supported. There is a small difference between EEG and MEG data, because in MEG data the sensor positions are usually represented in the raw data files. Therefore the MEG sensor information is kept with the data while processing, whereas in EEG the sensor information is usually processed separately. For animal electrophysiology data there is also a difference in the representation of local field potentials (c.f. EEG) and in spike timestamps and spike waveforms.
Although FieldTrip represents all data in a similar way, for some acquisition systems and/or file formats it may help if you understand how the peculiarities of that file format are related to the FieldTrip implementation. The following pages serve as a starting point for particular data acquisition systems. Note that not all supported data formats are listed here, only those with peculiarities that you should be aware of.
Finally, you might have data already analyzed using other software, and would like to start by reading their output. Or the other way around, and process FieldTrip data further in other software. For some common software packages we provide functions and examples.
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 CTF data
- Getting started with BTi/4D data
- Getting started with Neuromag/Elekta/Megin data
- Getting started with BabySQUID data
- Getting started with Yokogawa data
- Getting started with Ricoh data
- Getting started with OPM data recorded at the FIL
- Getting started with Cerca OPM data
- Getting started with FieldLine OPM data
Getting started with particular EEG data types
- Getting started with BrainVision Analyzer and Easycap
- Getting started with 20%, 10% and 5% electrode arrangements
- Getting started with ANT-Neuro, ASA and EEProbe data
- Getting started with Advanced Brain Monitoring (ABM)’s B-Alert EEG data
- Getting started with BESA data
- Getting started with Biosemi BDF data
- Getting started with EDF data
- Getting started with EGI/Philips/Magstim data
- Getting started with Nicolet data
- Getting started with TMSi data
Getting started with intracranial data
- Getting started with Blackrock data
- Getting started with Cyberkinetics data
- Getting started with Neuralynx data
- Getting started with Neuralynx data recorded at the Donders Institute
- Getting started with Plexon data
- Getting started with animal electrophysiology data, including spikes
- Getting started with human intracranial electrophysiology data
- Getting started with Neurodata Without Borders (NWB) data
Getting started with NIRS data
- Getting started with Artinis NIRS data
- Getting started with Hitachi NIRS data
- Getting started with NIRx NIRS data
- Getting started with Shimadzu NIRS data
- Getting started with SNIRF NIRS data
Getting started with eyetracker data
Getting started with motion capture data
Getting started with other types of data
- Getting started with fMRI timeseries data
- Getting started with video data
- Getting started with audio data
Getting started with (data from) other software
- Getting started with BIDS
- Getting started with AnyWave
- Getting started with Seg3D
- Getting started with ParaView
- Getting started with MeshLab
- Getting started with LIMO EEG
- Getting started with data from EEGLAB
- Getting started with data from SPM
- Getting started with data from LORETA
- Getting started with data from the BIOIMAGE suite
- Getting started with data from Homer
- Getting started with MNE(-python)
- Getting started with SimNIBS