FieldTrip: Open Source Software for Advanced Analysis of MEG, EEG, and Invasive Electrophysiological Data

TLDR

This paper introduces FieldTrip, an open‑source MATLAB toolbox for analyzing MEG, EEG, and other electrophysiological data. FieldTrip is implemented as a MATLAB toolbox providing user‑friendly high‑level functions for time‑frequency analysis, source reconstruction, connectivity, and nonparametric statistical testing, and supports batch scripting and easy extension by users and developers. Its modular design enables reuse in other software packages.

Abstract

This paper describes FieldTrip, an open source software package that we developed for the analysis of MEG, EEG, and other electrophysiological data. The software is implemented as a MATLAB toolbox and includes a complete set of consistent and user-friendly high-level functions that allow experimental neuroscientists to analyze experimental data. It includes algorithms for simple and advanced analysis, such as time-frequency analysis using multitapers, source reconstruction using dipoles, distributed sources and beamformers, connectivity analysis, and nonparametric statistical permutation tests at the channel and source level. The implementation as toolbox allows the user to perform elaborate and structured analyses of large data sets using the MATLAB command line and batch scripting. Furthermore, users and developers can easily extend the functionality and implement new algorithms. The modular design facilitates the reuse in other software packages.