MNE-BIDS#

MNE-BIDS is a Python package that allows you to read and write BIDS-compatible datasets with the help of MNE-Python.

Schematic: From raw data to BIDS using MNE-BIDS

Why?#

MNE-BIDS links BIDS and MNE-Python with the goal to make your analyses faster to code and more robust, and to facilitate data and code sharing with co-workers and collaborators.

Having your data in BIDS format also allows the use of automated pipelines, for example mne-bids-pipeline.

What is this BIDS thing, anyway?#

BIDS, the Brain Imaging Data Structure, is a standard that describes how to organize neuroimaging and electrophysiological data. In particular, it defines:

  • which file formats to use

  • how to name your files

  • where to place your files within a directory structure

  • what additional metadata to store

The complete set of rules is written down in the BIDS specification.

Supported file formats#

Currently, we support all file formats that are in the BIDS specification for MEG, EEG, fNIRS, and iEEG data. We also support a range of additional manufacturer formats to facilitate converting them to their BIDS-recommended formats. For example, if you have a Nihon Kohden file, you can read that file using MNE-Python, and then use MNE-BIDS convert it to the BrainVision format and store it according to BIDS.

Citing MNE-BIDS#

If you use MNE-BIDS in your work, please cite our publication in JOSS.

Appelhoff, S., Sanderson, M., Brooks, T., Vliet, M., Quentin, R., Holdgraf, C., Chaumon, M., Mikulan, E., Tavabi, K., Höchenberger, R., Welke, D., Brunner, C., Rockhill, A., Larson, E., Gramfort, A., & Jas, M. (2019). MNE-BIDS: Organizing electrophysiological data into the BIDS format and facilitating their analysis. Journal of Open Source Software, 4:1896. DOI: 10.21105/joss.01896

Please also cite one of the following papers to credit BIDS, depending on which data type you used: