| name | edf |
| description | European Data Format (.edf) — clinical EEG / sEEG / PSG standard |
| layer | L0 |
| group | consumer_eeg |
| metadata | {"tags":["io","edf","european_data_format","clinical","psg"],"formats":[".edf",".edf+",".bdf"],"modalities":["eeg","seeg","ecog"]} |
EDF — European Data Format
Format Overview
EDF (Kemp 1992) is the most widely used clinical EEG format. EDF+ adds
asynchronous events. BDF is the 24-bit BioSemi variant. Sleep / PSG
labs, epilepsy units, and many BIDS-iEEG deposits use EDF as the data file.
Loader
Primary: mne.io.read_raw_edf / mne.io.read_raw_bdf.
Common Pitfalls
- Mixed sample rates across channels (rare but allowed by spec) —
MNE upsamples; verify.
- Annotations vs events — EDF+ annotations need separate parsing.
- Header truncation — some clinical exports trim subject info.
EasyBCI Path
- load:edf
Hands off to MNE's reader; dispatcher handles modality inference from
channel-naming + sample rate. See bci/pipeline/SKILL.md
Step 1.
References
- Kemp, B. et al. (1992). A simple format for exchange of digitized
polygraphic recordings. EEG Clin. Neurophysiol. 82(5): 391–393.
doi:10.1016/0013-4694(92)90009-7.
- Kemp, B., & Olivan, J. (2003). European Data Format `plus' (EDF+).
Clin. Neurophysiol. 114(9): 1755–1761. doi:10.1016/S1388-2457(03)00123-8.
Boundary
fif: MNE-native; preferred for MEG.
brainvision: Brain Products vendor format; comparable consumer EEG.
bids_ieeg: BIDS sidecar overlay (EDF is the data file).