Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Support for MEG was developed as a BIDS Extension Proposal. Please cite the following paper when referring to this part of the standard in context of the academic literature:

Niso Galan, J.G., Gorgolewski, K.J., Bock, E., Brooks, T.L., Flandin, G., Gramfort, A., Henson, R.N., Jas, M., Litvak, V., Moreau, J., Oostenveld, R., Schoffelen, J.-M., Tadel, F., Wexler, J., Baillet, S. (2018). MEG-BIDS, the brain imaging data structure extended to magnetoencephalography. Scientific data, 5. doi: 10.1038/sdata.2018.110

MEG recording data

Template:

sub-<label>/
    [ses-<label>]/
      meg/
        sub-<label>[_ses-<label>]_task-<label>[_run-<index>][_proc-<label>]_meg.<manufacturer_specific_extension>
        [sub-<label>[_ses-<label>]_task-<label>[_run-<index>][_proc-<label>]_meg.json]

Unprocessed MEG data MUST be stored in the native file format of the MEG instrument with which the data was collected. With the MEG specification of BIDS, we wish to promote the adoption of good practices in the management of scientific data. Hence, the emphasis is not to impose a new, generic data format for the modality, but rather to standardize the way data is stored in repositories. Further, there is currently no widely accepted standard file format for MEG, but major software applications, including free and open-source solutions for MEG data analysis, provide readers of such raw files.

Some software readers may skip important metadata that is specific to MEG system manufacturers. It is therefore RECOMMENDED that users provide additional meta information extracted from the manufacturer raw data files in a sidecar JSON file. This allows for easy searching and indexing of key metadata elements without the need to parse files in proprietary data format. Other relevant files MAY be included alongside the MEG data; examples are provided below.

This template is for MEG data of any kind, including but not limited to task-based, resting-state, and noise recordings. If multiple Tasks were performed within a single Run, the task description can be set to task-multitask. The _meg.json SHOULD contain details on the Tasks. Some manufacturers data storage conventions use folders which contain data files of various nature: e.g., CTF’s .ds format, or BTi/4D. Please refer to Appendix VI for examples from a selection of MEG manufacturers.

The proc label is analogous to rec for MR and denotes a variant of a file that was a result of particular processing performed on the device. This is useful for files produced in particular by Elekta’s MaxFilter (e.g. sss, tsss, trans, quat, mc, etc.), which some installations impose to be run on raw data because of active shielding software corrections before the MEG data can actually be exploited.

Sidecar JSON (*_meg.json)

Generic fields MUST be present:

Field name Definition
TaskName REQUIRED. Name of the task (for resting state use the rest prefix). Different Tasks SHOULD NOT have the same name. The Task label is derived from this field by removing all non alphanumeric ([a-zA-Z0-9]) characters.

SHOULD be present: For consistency between studies and institutions, we encourage users to extract the values of these fields from the actual raw data. Whenever possible, please avoid using ad-hoc wording.

Field name Definition
InstitutionName RECOMMENDED. The name of the institution in charge of the equipment that produced the composite instances.
InstitutionAddress RECOMMENDED. The address of the institution in charge of the equipment that produced the composite instances.
Manufacturer RECOMMENDED. Manufacturer of the MEG system (CTF, Elekta/Neuromag, BTi/4D, KIT/Yokogawa, ITAB, KRISS, Other). See Appendix VII with preferred names
ManufacturersModelName RECOMMENDED. Manufacturer’s designation of the MEG scanner model (e.g. CTF-275). See Appendix VII with preferred names
SoftwareVersions RECOMMENDED. Manufacturer’s designation of the acquisition software.
TaskDescription RECOMMENDED. Description of the task.
Instructions RECOMMENDED. Text of the instructions given to participants before the scan. This is not only important for behavioral or cognitive tasks but also in resting state paradigms (e.g. to distinguish between eyes open and eyes closed).
CogAtlasID RECOMMENDED. URL of the corresponding Cognitive Atlas term that describes the task (e.g. Resting State with eyes closed "http://www.cognitiveatlas.org/task/id/trm_54e69c642d89b")
CogPOID RECOMMENDED. URL of the corresponding CogPO term that describes the task (e.g. Rest "http://wiki.cogpo.org/index.php?title=Rest")
DeviceSerialNumber RECOMMENDED. The serial number of the equipment that produced the composite instances. A pseudonym can also be used to prevent the equipment from being identifiable, as long as each pseudonym is unique within the dataset.

Specific MEG fields MUST be present:

Field name Definition
SamplingFrequency REQUIRED. Sampling frequency (in Hz) of all the data in the recording, regardless of their type (e.g., 2400)
PowerLineFrequency REQUIRED. Frequency (in Hz) of the power grid at the geographical location of the MEG instrument (i.e. 50 or 60)
DewarPosition REQUIRED. Position of the dewar during the MEG scan: upright, supine or degrees of angle from vertical: for example on CTF systems, upright=15°, supine = 90°.
SoftwareFilters REQUIRED. A JSON object of temporal software filters applied, or "n/a" if the data is not available. Each key:value pair in the JSON object is a name of the filter and an object in which its parameters are defined as key:value pairs. E.g., {"SSS": {"frame": "head", "badlimit": 7}, "SpatialCompensation": {"GradientOrder": "Order of the gradient compensation"}}
DigitizedLandmarks REQUIRED. Boolean ("true" or "false") value indicating whether anatomical landmark points (i.e. fiducials) are contained within this recording.
DigitizedHeadPoints REQUIRED. Boolean (true or false) value indicating whether head points outlining the scalp/face surface are contained within this recording.

SHOULD be present:

Field name Definition
MEGChannelCount RECOMMENDED. Number of MEG channels (e.g. 275)
MEGREFChannelCount RECOMMENDED. Number of MEG reference channels (e.g. 23). For systems without such channels (e.g. Neuromag Vectorview), MEGREFChannelCount=0
EEGChannelCount RECOMMENDED. Number of EEG channels recorded simultaneously (e.g. 21)
ECOGChannelCount RECOMMENDED. Number of ECoG channels
SEEGChannelCount RECOMMENDED. Number of SEEG channels
EOGChannelCount RECOMMENDED. Number of EOG channels
ECGChannelCount RECOMMENDED. Number of ECG channels
EMGChannelCount RECOMMENDED. Number of EMG channels
MiscChannelCount RECOMMENDED. Number of miscellaneous analog channels for auxiliary signals
TriggerChannelCount RECOMMENDED. Number of channels for digital (TTL bit level) triggers
RecordingDuration RECOMMENDED. Length of the recording in seconds (e.g. 3600)
RecordingType RECOMMENDED. Defines whether the recording is continuous or epoched; this latter limited to time windows about events of interest (e.g., stimulus presentations, subject responses etc.)
EpochLength RECOMMENDED. Duration of individual epochs in seconds (e.g. 1) in case of epoched data
ContinuousHeadLocalization RECOMMENDED. Boolean (true or false) value indicating whether continuous head localisation was performed.
HeadCoilFrequency RECOMMENDED. List of frequencies (in Hz) used by the head localisation coils (‘HLC’ in CTF systems, ‘HPI’ in Elekta, ‘COH’ in BTi/4D) that track the subject’s head position in the MEG helmet (e.g. [293, 307, 314, 321])
MaxMovement RECOMMENDED. Maximum head movement (in mm) detected during the recording, as measured by the head localisation coils (e.g., 4.8)
SubjectArtefactDescription RECOMMENDED. Freeform description of the observed subject artefact and its possible cause (e.g. "Vagus Nerve Stimulator", "non-removable implant"). If this field is set to n/a, it will be interpreted as absence of major source of artifacts except cardiac and blinks.
AssociatedEmptyRoom RECOMMENDED. Relative path in BIDS folder structure to empty-room file associated with the subject’s MEG recording. The path needs to use forward slashes instead of backward slashes (e.g. sub-emptyroom/ses-/meg/sub-emptyroom_ses-_task-noise_run-_meg.ds).
HardwareFilters RECOMMENDED. A JSON object of temporal hardware filters applied, or "n/a" if the data is not available. Each key:value pair in the JSON object is a name of the filter and an object in which its parameters are defined as key:value pairs. E.g., {"Highpass RC filter": {"Half amplitude cutoff (Hz)": 0.0159, "Roll-off": "6dB/Octave"}}

Specific EEG fields (if recorded with MEG) SHOULD be present:

Field name Definition
EEGPlacementScheme OPTIONAL. Placement scheme of EEG electrodes. Either the name of a standardised placement system (e.g., "10-20") or a list of standardised electrode names (e.g. ["Cz", "Pz"]).
CapManufacturer OPTIONAL. Manufacturer of the EEG cap (e.g. EasyCap)
CapManufacturersModelName OPTIONAL. Manufacturer’s designation of the EEG cap model (e.g., M10)
EEGReference OPTIONAL. Description of the type of EEG reference used (e.g., M1 for left mastoid, average, or longitudinal bipolar).

By construct, EEG when recorded simultaneously with the same MEG system , should have the same SamplingFrequency as MEG. Note that if EEG is recorded with a separate amplifier, it should be stored separately under a new /eeg data type (see the EEG specification).

Example:

{
   "InstitutionName": "Stanford University",
   "InstitutionAddress": "450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305-2004, USA",
   "Manufacturer": "CTF",
   "ManufacturersModelName": "CTF-275",
   "DeviceSerialNumber": "11035",
   "SoftwareVersions": "Acq 5.4.2-linux-20070507",
   "PowerLineFrequency": 60,
   "SamplingFrequency": 2400,
   "MEGChannelCount": 270,
   "MEGREFChannelCount": 26,
   "EEGChannelCount": 0,
   "EOGChannelCount": 2,
   "ECGChannelCount": 1,
   "EMGChannelCount": 0,
     "DewarPosition": "upright",
   "SoftwareFilters": {
     "SpatialCompensation": {"GradientOrder": "3rd"}
   },
   "RecordingDuration": 600,
   "RecordingType": "continuous",
   "EpochLength": 0,
   "TaskName": "rest",
   "ContinuousHeadLocalization": true,
   "HeadCoilFrequency": [1470,1530,1590],
   "DigitizedLandmarks": true,
   "DigitizedHeadPoints": true
}

Note that the date and time information SHOULD be stored in the Study key file (scans.tsv), see Scans file. As it is indicated there, date time information MUST be expressed in the following format YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss (ISO8601 date-time format). For example: 2009-06-15T13:45:30. It does not need to be fully detailed, depending on local REB/IRB ethics board policy.

Channels description (*_channels.tsv)

Template:

sub-<label>/
    [ses-<label>]/
      meg/
        [sub-<label>[_ses-<label>]_task-<label>[_run-<index>][_proc-<label>]_channels.tsv]

This file is RECOMMENDED as it provides easily searchable information across BIDS datasets for e.g., general curation, response to queries or batch analysis. To avoid confusion, the channels SHOULD be listed in the order they appear in the MEG data file. Missing values MUST be indicated with n/a.

The columns of the Channels description table stored in *_channels.tsv are:

MUST be present:

Column name Definition
name REQUIRED. Channel name (e.g., MRT012, MEG023)
type REQUIRED. Type of channel; MUST use the channel types listed below.
units REQUIRED. Physical unit of the data values recorded by this channel in SI (see Appendix V: Units for allowed symbols).

SHOULD be present:

Column name Definition
description OPTIONAL. Brief free-text description of the channel, or other information of interest. See examples below.
sampling_frequency OPTIONAL. Sampling rate of the channel in Hz.
low_cutoff OPTIONAL. Frequencies used for the high-pass filter applied to the channel in Hz. If no high-pass filter applied, use n/a.
high_cutoff OPTIONAL. Frequencies used for the low-pass filter applied to the channel in Hz. If no low-pass filter applied, use n/a. Note that hardware anti-aliasing in A/D conversion of all MEG/EEG electronics applies a low-pass filter; specify its frequency here if applicable.
notch OPTIONAL. Frequencies used for the notch filter applied to the channel, in Hz. If no notch filter applied, use n/a.
software_filters OPTIONAL. List of temporal and/or spatial software filters applied (e.g. "SSS", "SpatialCompensation"). Note that parameters should be defined in the general MEG sidecar .json file. Indicate n/a in the absence of software filters applied.
status OPTIONAL. Data quality observed on the channel (good/bad). A channel is considered bad if its data quality is compromised by excessive noise. Description of noise type SHOULD be provided in [status_description].
status_description OPTIONAL. Freeform text description of noise or artifact affecting data quality on the channel. It is meant to explain why the channel was declared bad in [status].

Example:

name type units description sampling_frequency  low_cutoff  high_cutoff notch software_filters status
UDIO001 TRIG V analogue trigger 1200  0.1 300 0 n/a good
MLC11 MEGGRADAXIAL T sensor 1st-order grad 1200 0 n/a 50 SSS bad

Restricted keyword list for field type

Keyword Definition
MEGMAG MEG magnetometer
MEGGRADAXIAL MEG axial gradiometer
MEGGRADPLANAR MEG planargradiometer
MEGREFMAG MEG reference magnetometer
MEGREFGRADAXIAL MEG reference axial gradiometer
MEGREFGRADPLANAR MEG reference planar gradiometer
MEGOTHER Any other type of MEG sensor
EEG Electrode channel
ECOG Electrode channel
SEEG Electrode channel
DBS Electrode channel
VEOG Vertical EOG (electrooculogram)
HEOG Horizontal EOG
EOG Generic EOG channel
ECG ElectroCardioGram (heart)
EMG ElectroMyoGram (muscle)
TRIG System Triggers
AUDIO Audio signal
PD Photodiode
EYEGAZE Eye Tracker gaze
PUPIL Eye Tracker pupil diameter
MISC Miscellaneous
SYSCLOCK System time showing elapsed time since trial started
ADC Analog to Digital input
DAC Digital to Analog output
HLU Measured position of head and head coils
FITERR Fit error signal from each head localization coil
OTHER Any other type of channel

Example of free text for field description

  • stimulus, response, vertical EOG, horizontal EOG, skin conductance, sats, intracranial, eyetracker

Example:

name type units description
VEOG VEOG V vertical EOG
FDI EMG V left first dorsal interosseous
UDIO001 TRIG V analog trigger signal
UADC001 AUDIO V envelope of audio signal presented to participant

Coordinate System JSON (*_coordsystem.json)

Template:

sub-<label>/
    [ses-<label>]/
      meg/
        [sub-<label>[_ses-<label>][_acq-<label>]_coordsystem.json]

OPTIONAL. A JSON document specifying the coordinate system(s) used for the MEG, EEG, head localization coils, and anatomical landmarks.

MEG and EEG sensors:

Field name Description
MEGCoordinateSystem REQUIRED. Defines the coordinate system for the MEG sensors. See Appendix VIII: preferred names of Coordinate systems. If Other, provide definition of the coordinate system in [MEGCoordinateSystemDescription].
MEGCoordinateUnits REQUIRED. Units of the coordinates of MEGCoordinateSystem. MUST be m, cm, or mm.
MEGCoordinateSystemDescription OPTIONAL. Freeform text description or link to document describing the MEG coordinate system system in detail.
EEGCoordinateSystem OPTIONAL. Describes how the coordinates of the EEG sensors are to be interpreted.
EEGCoordinateUnits OPTIONAL. Units of the coordinates of EEGCoordinateSystem. MUST be m, cm, or mm.
EEGCoordinateSystemDescription OPTIONAL. Freeform text description or link to document describing the EEG coordinate system system in detail.

Head localization coils:

Field name Description
HeadCoilCoordinates OPTIONAL. Key:value pairs describing head localization coil labels and their coordinates, interpreted following the HeadCoilCoordinateSystem, e.g., {NAS: [12.7,21.3,13.9], LPA: [5.2,11.3,9.6], RPA: [20.2,11.3,9.1]}. Note that coils are not always placed at locations that have a known anatomical name (e.g. for Elekta, Yokogawa systems); in that case generic labels can be used (e.g. {coil1: [12.2,21.3,12.3], coil2: [6.7,12.3,8.6], coil3: [21.9,11.0,8.1]} ).
HeadCoilCoordinateSystem OPTIONAL. Defines the coordinate system for the coils. See Appendix VIII: preferred names of Coordinate systems. If "Other", provide definition of the coordinate system in HeadCoilCoordinateSystemDescription.
HeadCoilCoordinateUnits OPTIONAL. Units of the coordinates of HeadCoilCoordinateSystem. MUST be m, cm, or mm.
HeadCoilCoordinateSystemDescription OPTIONAL. Freeform text description or link to document describing the Head Coil coordinate system system in detail.

Digitized head points:

Field name Description
DigitizedHeadPoints OPTIONAL. Relative path to the file containing the locations of digitized head points collected during the session (e.g., sub-01_headshape.pos). RECOMMENDED for all MEG systems, especially for CTF and BTi/4D. For Elekta/Neuromag the head points will be stored in the fif file.
DigitizedHeadPointsCoordinateSystem OPTIONAL. Defines the coordinate system for the digitized head points. See Appendix VIII: preferred names of Coordinate systems. If Other, provide definition of the coordinate system in DigitizedHeadPointsCoordinateSystemDescription.
DigitizedHeadPointsCoordinateUnits OPTIONAL. Units of the coordinates of DigitizedHeadPointsCoordinateSystem. MUST be m, cm, or mm.
DigitizedHeadPointsCoordinateSystemDescription OPTIONAL. Freeform text description or link to document describing the Digitized head Points coordinate system system in detail.

Anatomical MRI:

Field name Description
IntendedFor OPTIONAL. Path or list of path relative to the subject subfolder pointing to the structural MRI, possibly of different types if a list is specified, to be used with the MEG recording. The path(s) need(s) to use forward slashes instead of backward slashes (e.g. ses-/anat/sub-01_T1w.nii.gz).

Anatomical landmarks:

Field name Description
AnatomicalLandmarkCoordinates OPTIONAL. Key:value pairs of the labels and 3-D digitized locations of anatomical landmarks, interpreted following the AnatomicalLandmarkCoordinateSystem, e.g., {"NAS": [12.7,21.3,13.9], "LPA": [5.2,11.3,9.6], "RPA": [20.2,11.3,9.1]}.
AnatomicalLandmarkCoordinateSystem OPTIONAL. Defines the coordinate system for the anatomical landmarks. See Appendix VIII: preferred names of Coordinate systems. If Other, provide definition of the coordinate system in AnatomicalLandmarkCoordinateSystemDescription.
AnatomicalLandmarkCoordinateUnits OPTIONAL. Units of the coordinates of AnatomicalLandmarkCoordinateSystem. MUST be m, cm, or mm.
AnatomicalLandmarkCoordinateSystemDescription OPTIONAL. Freeform text description or link to document describing the Head Coil coordinate system system in detail.

It is also RECOMMENDED that the MRI voxel coordinates of the actual anatomical landmarks for co-registration of MEG with structural MRI are stored in the AnatomicalLandmarkCoordinates field in the JSON sidecar of the corresponding T1w MRI anatomical data of the subject seen in the MEG session (see here ) - for example: sub-01/ses-mri/anat/sub-01_ses-mri_acq-mprage_T1w.json

In principle, these locations are those of absolute anatomical markers. However, the marking of NAS, LPA and RPA is more ambiguous than that of e.g., AC and PC. This may result in some variability in their 3-D digitization from session to session, even for the same participant. The solution would be to use only one T1w file and populate the AnatomicalLandmarkCoordinates field with session-specific labels e.g., "NAS-session1": [127,213,139],"NAS-session2": [123,220,142], etc.

Fiducials information:

Field name Description
FiducialsDescription OPTIONAL. A freeform text field documenting the anatomical landmarks that were used and how the head localization coils were placed relative to these. This field can describe, for instance, whether the true anatomical locations of the left and right pre-auricular points were used and digitized, or rather whether they were defined as the intersection between the tragus and the helix (the entry of the ear canal), or any other anatomical description of selected points in the vicinity of the ears.

For more information on the definition of anatomical landmarks, please visit: http://www.fieldtriptoolbox.org/faq/how_are_the_lpa_and_rpa_points_defined

For more information on typical coordinate systems for MEG-MRI coregistration: http://www.fieldtriptoolbox.org/faq/how_are_the_different_head_and_mri_coordinate_systems_defined, or: http://neuroimage.usc.edu/brainstorm/CoordinateSystems

Landmark photos (*_photo.jpg)

Photos of the anatomical landmarks and/or head localization coils (*_photo.jpg)

Template:

sub-<label>/
    [ses-<label>]/
      meg/
        [sub-<label>[_ses-<label>][_acq-<label>]_photo.jpg]

Photos of the anatomical landmarks and/or head localization coils on the subject’s head are RECOMMENDED. If the coils are not placed at the location of actual anatomical landmarks, these latter may be marked with a piece of felt-tip taped to the skin. Please note that the photos may need to be cropped or blurred to conceal identifying features prior to sharing, depending on the terms of the consent given by the participant.

The acq parameter can be used to indicate acquisition of different photos of the same face (or other body part in different angles to show, for example, the location of the nasion (NAS) as opposed to the right periauricular point (RPA)).

Example of the NAS fiducial placed between the eyebrows, rather than at the actual anatomical nasion: sub-0001_ses-001_acq-NAS_photo.jpg

placement of NAS fiducial

Head shape and electrode description (*_headshape.<ext>)

Template:

sub-<label>/
    [ses-<label>]/
      meg/
        [sub-<label>[_ses-<label>][_acq-<label>]_headshape.<manufacturer_specific_extension>]

This file is RECOMMENDED.

The 3-D locations of points that describe the head shape and/or EEG electrode locations can be digitized and stored in separate files. The *_acq-<label> can be used when more than one type of digitization in done for a session, for example when the head points are in a separate file from the EEG locations. These files are stored in the specific format of the 3-D digitizer’s manufacturer (see Appendix VI).

Example:

sub-control01
    ses-01
        sub-control01_ses-01_acq-HEAD_headshape.pos
        sub-control01_ses-01_acq-ECG_headshape.pos

Note that the *_headshape file(s) is shared by all the runs and tasks in a session. If the subject needs to be taken out of the scanner and the head-shape has to be updated, then for MEG it could be considered to be a new session.

Empty-room MEG recordings

Empty-room MEG recordings capture the environment and system noise. Their collection is RECOMMENDED, before/during/after each session. This data is stored inside a subject folder named sub-emptyroom. The session label SHOULD be that of the date of the empty-room recording (e.g. ses-YYYYMMDD). The scans.tsv file containing the date/time of the acquisition SHOULD also be included. Hence, users will be able to retrieve the empty-room recording that best matches a particular session with a participant, based on date/time of recording.

Example:

sub-control01/
sub-control02/
sub-emptyroom/
    ses-20170801/
        sub-emptyroom_ses-20170801_scans.tsv
        meg/
            sub-emptyroom_ses-20170801_task-noise_meg.ds
            sub-emptyroom_ses-20170801_task-noise_meg.json

TaskName in the *_meg.json file should be set to "noise".