Electrophysiology

Electrophysiology data in open science is organised around a complementary pair of standards, a set of annotation tools, and a network of repositories and open datasets.

Standards and formats

NWB (Neurodata Without Borders) and BIDS together form the open data infrastructure for electrophysiology. BIDS organises EEG, MEG, and iEEG datasets using EDF and BrainVision as standardised file formats. NWB provides a richer single-file format for neurophysiology recordings including spike trains, LFP (local field potential), calcium imaging, and behaviour, and is the mandated format for data from NIH BRAIN Initiative-funded projects.

Tools and annotation

HED (Hierarchical Event Descriptors) provides structured event annotation applicable to any paradigm producing time-stamped events, and is integrated with both BIDS and NWB. For clinical EEG specifically, the SCORE (Standardized Computer-based Organized Reporting of EEG) reporting terminology has been encoded as a HED library schema, bringing standardised seizure and clinical-EEG annotation into the same framework. Neo is an open-source Python object model and I/O library for reading electrophysiology data across a wide range of proprietary and open formats, enabling interoperability across recording systems.

Data archives

Open electrophysiology data is deposited across several repositories depending on format and context. DANDI Archive requires NWB format for all submissions and is the principal archive for animal neurophysiology from NIH BRAIN Initiative projects. Both NWB and DANDI Archive are species-agnostic. OpenNeuro accepts BIDS-formatted EEG, MEG, and iEEG datasets alongside its neuroimaging collections. NEMAR mirrors EEG, MEG, and iEEG datasets from OpenNeuro and provides HPC (high-performance computing) processing support. G-Node offers long-term GDPR-compliant storage for European electrophysiology and neuroimaging data. EBRAINS accepts both NWB and BIDS data within its federated infrastructure. Zenodo accepts any file format and serves as a domain-agnostic option. FAIRsharing and re3data index further repository options.

Notable open datasets

Much of the open electrophysiology data in these archives comes from animal models, since invasive recording techniques such as Neuropixels and patch-clamp are predominantly applied in non-human species. The IBL (International Brain Laboratory) produces open large-scale electrophysiology data archived on DANDI Archive in NWB format, covering Neuropixels recordings of mouse decision-making across 279 brain regions spanning most of the mouse brain. The Allen Institute for Brain Science produces landmark open mouse datasets including the MindScope Visual Coding and Visual Behavior Neuropixels series, also packaged in NWB and deposited in DANDI Archive.

Community initiatives

EEG101 (COST Action CA24148) is a European network launched in 2025 to standardise EEG reporting, build curated BIDS-compliant datasets, and develop shared open-science infrastructure for EEG research across Europe and beyond.

Clinical electrophysiology

SEEG (stereoelectroencephalography) is the invasive electrophysiology modality at the centre of the EPINOV clinical trial and the Virtual Brain Twin project. In both, personalised whole-brain simulation models are driven by individual patients’ SEEG recordings to localise epileptogenic zones and predict surgical outcomes, creating a direct pipeline from clinical electrophysiology data to open computational brain models deposited on EBRAINS.

For a step-by-step guide to formatting and depositing electrophysiology data, see Sharing your data.