Standardized formats for brain activity data

Please find a list of commonly used data formats.

	Format	Description	Citation	Modality(s)
1	EDF, EDF+	An early standardized data format used for sleep recordings (EEG, respiration, EMG, etc.). Files include a header record with subject info, time, and signal identification.	(Kemp et al., 1992; Kemp and Olivan 2003)	Electrophysiology
2	MEF	Open-source software for high-volume neural data. Features range encoding for compression, 128-bit encryption for patient security, and redundancy checks.	(Brinkmann et al., 2009)	Electrophysiology
3	Orca	Also known as BORG; developed by the Allen Institute for electrophysiology and optophysiology data. It is built upon the HDF5-based format.	(Godfrey, 2014; Friedsam, 2016)	Electrophysiology
4	KWIK	Part of the Klusta suite for spike sorting. These HDF5-based files store spike times, clusters, and associated metadata.	(Kadir et al., 2014)	Electrophysiology
5	NEO	Successor to Neuroshare API; provides a design specification for core neuroscience objects to decouple data representation from downstream analysis.	(Garcia et al., 2014)	Electrophysiology
6	BRAINformat	An open-source library defining application-independent design concepts using HDF5 to create a general framework for scientific data standardization.	(Rübel et al., 2016)	Electrophysiology
7	ONE	Developed by the IBL consortium for multi-lab sharing. Uses an object.attribute.extension naming scheme compatible across various file formats.	(IBL et al., 2023)	Electrophysiology, Imaging, Other
8	NWB	A common standard for sharing and archiving neurophysiology data, including intracellular/extracellular electrophysiology, optical physiology, and behavior.	(Teeters et al., 2015; Rubel et al., 2022)	Electrophysiology, Other
9	DICOM	The international standard for medical imaging (MRI, CT, X-ray). Defines formats for clinical data exchange and quality across radiology and cardiology.	(NEMA, 1993)	Imaging
10	NIFTI	Designed specifically for brain imaging; packages image data and metadata into a single file to simplify sharing and neuroimaging analysis.	(Cox et al., 2004)	Imaging
11	NIX	A hierarchical and extensible format designed to store diverse data including electrophysiology, imaging, and behavioral datasets.	(Martone 2014)	Imaging
12	BIDS	A standard for organizing and describing neuroimaging (and later EEG) data to promote reproducibility and interoperability across labs and tools.	(Gorgolewski et al., 2016)	Imaging

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