This format is currently under development!
From the NWB website:
Neurodata Without Borders: Neurophysiology (NWB:N) is a project to develop a unified data format for cellular-based neurophysiology data, focused on the dynamics of groups of neurons measured under a large range of experimental conditions. The NWB:N team consists of neuroscientists and software developers who recognize that adoption of a unified data format is an important step toward breaking down the barriers to data sharing in neuroscience.
NWB:N is funded by GE, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), The Kavli Foundation and the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility. Our founding scientific partners are the Allen Institute, the Svoboda Lab at the Janelia Research Campus of HHMI, the Meister Lab at the California Institute of Technology, the Buzsáki Lab at New York University School of Medicine and the University of California, Berkeley.
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The official format specification can be found on GitHub as raw HTML files. We've adapted it for use with Open Ephys by extending some base classes of the NWB specification to hold extra data that might be provided by the software. Extension files for the official NWB API will be provided as per the standard. The resulting format is as follows:
Open Ephys NWB File Structure (based on version 1.0.6)
(NOTE: The current version of the NWB record format on the development branch of Open Ephys is untested and unfinished so it might have bugs or fields not completely complying with the specification. )
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Top-level groups (always created):
/acquisition
/analysis
/epochs
/general
/processing
/stimulus
Top-level datasets (always created):
/file_create_date: date + time in ISO format (text array)
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/session_start_time: date + time in ISO format (text)
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/acquisition group:
All of the data generated during recording should be stored in this group.
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M = index of metadata field (1, 2, 3, etc...)
Rules for creating new files, versus creating new groups:
- If acquisition is stopped, create a new file (experiment1.nwb, experiment2.nwb, etc.). Timestamps are reset to zero.
- If recording is stopped (but acquisition is active), create a new group (recording1, recording2, etc.). Timestamps are relative to start of acquisition.
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/general group:
All of the experimental metadata should be stored in this group. Eventually, we should have a pop-up window inside the GUI that allows the user to input various parameters (e.g., subject name, experimenter name) that will be automatically written here.
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