EEProbe

The EEP tools
A.N.T. Software BV
Max-Planck-Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
ANT/MPI

Contents

Introduction

EEP 3.1 is a Unix software for Event Related Potential studies. The fileformats are partly compatible with the MS-DOS based Software EEP 2.0 by Erdmut Pfeifer.

The package consists of several programs (modules) to process digitized EEG/MEG records(cnt-files) and the ERP's(avr-files) derived from these records.

Each module is started by a shell-command and is controlled by command line arguments and, optionally, by a configuration file. Protocol output is directed into the standard output channel. Status and error messages are directed into the standard error channel. After successful operation a value of 0 (zero) is returned to the calling process, otherwise a different value.

EEP is not a general purpose signal processing toolkit. It offers only the most frequently needed facilities for ERP studies in its highly specialized modules.

New users should be able to work with the Unix operating system (file management, view/edit textfiles, shell) and should know the fundamentals of the ERP methodology. Then they should start by browsing this page as well as the "Usage" page to get a first overview.

Normally, EEP is installed ready-to-use. No per-user configuration is required. Some useful sample data files are available in the EEP directory:

cfg          - sample configurations
fir          - sample filter coeffs
app-defaults - resource templates for Motif apps
doc          - the HTML documentation

Modules

The following tables list the EEP modules and point to their individual reference pages. For some simple programs there is only the synopsis. Calling these modules with the --help argument and the configuration file comments should give you sufficient information.

The modules are classified according to its main purpose into Converter, Viewer, Data Management and Signal Processing. Of course, this classification is not perfect. For example, you can find signal processing options in the viewer programs or management functionality in the converters.

Converter

Name Purpose OSF1
alpha
Linux
i386
IRIX
mips
SunOS
sparc
DOS
i386
ns2riff NeuroScan SynAmps EEG Import xxxx
bti2riff BTi MEG Import x(1)
refa2cnt TMS PORTI-32/MREFA EEG Import x(1)
pegasus2cnt Pegasus 2 Import x
egiraw2cnt Electrical Geodesics 'Simple Binary Format' x
wg2cnt Walter Graphtek Raw Data Import xxx
wasc2cnt ASCII Raw Data ("Bonn-style") Import xxx
sig2cnt BrainLab Raw Data Import xxx
eep2riff EEP 2.0 Format Import xxxx
riff2eep EEP 2.0 Format Export xxxx
edf2cnt European Data Format Import x
cnt2edf European Data Format Export x
cnt2asc ASCII Raw Data Export xxx
avr2asc ASCII ERP Data Export xxx
raw2cnt Generic Raw Data Import Filter xxx
mex funcs Data Exchange with Matlab/Octave xxx

(1) only at the corresponding acquisition machines

Viewer

Name Purpose OSF1
alpha
Linux
i386
IRIX
mips
DOS
i386
cntview print cnt header informations xxx
avrview print avr header informations xxx
xcnt EEG/MEG Raw Data Viewer xxx
xeog Electrooculogram Epoch Classification xxx
xavr ERP Data Viewer xxx

Data Management

Name Purpose OSF1
alpha
Linux
i386
IRIX
mips
DOS
i386
cntsetup patch labels, scalings, compute bipolar channels etc. xxx
cntepoch cut raw data records xxxx
cntcat Raw Data Concatenation xxxx
cntdown Raw Data Downsampling xxx
cntmono obsolete, use cntsetup xxx
cntevents extract control data from signal archives xxx
cnttrials classify trials rejected or not(as cntaverage would do) xxx
trged Trigger Recoding xxxx
avrdown ERP Data Downsampling xxx
avrmerge merge avr's with different channel sets to one file xxx
avrchannels remove or rename channels in avr files xxx

Signal Processing

Name Purpose OSF1
alpha
Linux
i386
IRIX
mips
DOS
i386
cntfilter Finite Impulse Response Filter xxx
xfir Finite Impulse Response Filter Design xxx
cntreref Raw Data Rereferencing xxx
cntdetrend remove offsets and linear trends xxx
cntreject mark disturbed signal epochs xxx
cntreject_t mark disturbed trials xxx
cntaverage Single Subject ERP Calculation xxx
avrfilter ERP Finite Impulse Response filter xxx
avrdiff calc ERP differences xxx
avrreref ERP Rereferencing xxx
avraverage ERP Grand Averaging xxx
avrretrieve ASCII Export of ERP Dataset Information xxx
avrprocess Basic ERP Operations xxx
avrinterpol Spatial ERP Interpolation xxx
avrdetrend remove linear trends from ERP's xxx

Some more detailed descriptions of the computations behind the szenes are collected in a separate document(draft). It is available in PostScript and dvi.


EEP 3.1 - MPI/ANT(eeprobe@ant-software.nl), 05.08.1999
Copyright © 1996-99 Max-Planck-Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. All rights reserved.