Python parser for combined EEG and eye-tracking data
Copyright (2022-2025) Hermine Berberyan, Wouter Kruijne, Sebastiaan Mathôt, Ana Vilotijević
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Table of contents
About
A Python module for reading concurrently recorded EEG and eye-tracking data, and parsing this data into convenient objects for further analysis. For this to work, several assumptions need to be met, as described under Assumptions. At present, this module is largely for internal use, and focused on our own recording environment.
Key features:
- Experimental variables (such as conditions) from the eye-tracking data are used as metadata for the EEG analysis.
- Gaze and pupil data is added as channels to the EEG data.
- Automated preprocessing of eye-tracking and EEG data.
Example
Parse the data.
import eeg_eyetracking_parser as eet
raw, events, metadata = eet.read_subject(2)
raw.plot()
To avoid having to parse the data over and over again, read_subject()
uses persistent memoization, which is a way to store the return values of a function on disk and return them right away on subsequent calls. To clear the memoization cache, either call the read_subject.clear()
function or remove the .memoize
folder.
Plot the voltage across four occipital electrodes locked to cue onset for three seconds. This is done separately for three different conditions, defined by cue_eccentricity
. The function eet.autoreject_epochs()
behaves similarly to mne.Epochs()
, except that autorejection is applied and that, like read_subject()
, it uses persistent memoization.
import numpy as np
import mne
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
from datamatrix import convert as cnv
CUE_TRIGGER = 1
CHANNELS = 'O1', 'O2', 'Oz', 'P3', 'P4'
cue_epoch = eet.autoreject_epochs(raw, eet.epoch_trigger(events, CUE_TRIGGER),
tmin=-.1, tmax=3, metadata=metadata,
picks=CHANNELS)
We can convert the metadata, which is a DataFrame
, to a DataMatrix
, and add cue_epoch
as a multidimensional column
from datamatrix import convert as cnv
import time_series_test as tst
dm = cnv.from_pandas(metadata)
dm.erp = cnv.from_mne_epochs(cue_epoch)
dm.mean_erp = dm.erp[:, ...]
tst.plot(dm, dv='mean_erp', hue_factor='cue_eccentricity')
Because the regular mne.Epoch()
object doesn't play nice with non-data channels, such as pupil size, you need to use the eet.PupilEpochs()
class instead. This is class otherwise identical, except that it by default removes trials where baseline pupil size is more than 2 SD from the mean baseline pupil size.
pupil_cue_epoch = eet.PupilEpochs(raw, eet.epoch_trigger(events, CUE_TRIGGER),
tmin=0, tmax=3, metadata=metadata,
baseline=(0, .05))
dm.pupil = cnv.from_mne_epochs(pupil_cue_epoch, ch_avg=True)
tst.plot(dm, dv='pupil', hue_factor='cue_eccentricity')
Installation
pip install eeg_eyetracking_parser
Dependencies
- datamatrix >= 1.0
- eyelinkparser
- mne
- autoreject
- h5io
- braindecode
- python-picard
- json_tricks
Assumptions
Data format
- EEG data should be in BrainVision format (
.vhdr
), recorded at 1000 Hz - Eye-tracking data should be EyeLink format (
.edf
), recorded monocularly at 1000 Hz
File and folder structure
Files should be organized following BIDS.
# Container folder for all data
data/
# Subject 2
sub-02/
# EEG data
eeg/
sub-02_task-attentionalbreadth_eeg.eeg
sub-02_task-attentionalbreadth_eeg.vhdr
sub-02_task-attentionalbreadth_eeg.vmrk
# Behavioral data (usually not necessary)
beh/
sub-02_task-attentionalbreadth_beh.csv
# Eye-tracking data
eyetracking/
sub-02_task-attentionalbreadth_physio.edf
You can re-organize data files into the above structure automatically with the data2bids
command, which is part of this package.
Assumptions:
- all EEG files (.eeg, .vhdr, .vmrk)
are named in a 'Subject-00X-timestamp' format (e.g. Subject-002-[2022.06.12-14.35.46].eeg)
- eye-tracking files (.edf)
are named in a 'sub_X format' (e.g. sub_2.edf)
For example, to re-organize from participants 1, 2, 3, and 4 for a task called 'attentional-breadth', you can run the following command. This assumes that the unorganized files are in a subfolder called data
and that the re-organized (BIDS-compatible) files are also in this subfolder, i.e. as shown above.
data2bids --source-path=data --target-path=data -s=1,2,3,4 -t=attentional-breadth
Trigger codes
The start of each trial is indicated by a counter that starts at 128 for the first trial, and wraps around after 255, such that trial 129 is indicated again by 128. This trigger does not need to be sent to the eye tracker, which uses its own start_trial
message. A temporal offset between the start_trial
message of the eye tracker and the start-trial trigger of the EEG is ok, and will be compensated for during parsing.
EE.PulseLines(128 + trialid % 128, 10)
The onset of each epoch is indicated by a counter that starts at 1 for the first epoch, and then increases for subsequent epochs. In other words, if the target presentation is the second epoch of the trial, then this would correspond to trigger 2 as in the example below. This trigger needs to be sent to both the EEG and the eye tracker at the exact same moment (a temporal offset is not ok).
target_trigger = 2
eyetracker.log(f'start_phase {target_trigger}')
EE.PulseLines(target_trigger, 10)
Triggers should only be used for temporal information. Conditions are only logged in the eye-tracking data.
Function reference
autoreject_epochs(*args, ar_kwargs=None, **kwargs)
A factory function that creates an Epochs() object, applies
autorejection, and then returns it.
Important: This function uses persistent memoization, which means that
the results for a given set of arguments are stored on disk and returned
right away for subsequent calls. For more information, see
https://pydatamatrix.eu/memoization/
Parameters
-
*args: iterable
Arguments passed to mne.Epochs()
-
ar_kwargs: dict or None, optional
Keywords to be passed to AutoReject(). If n_interpolate
is not
specified, a default value of [1, 4, 8, 16] is used.
-
**kwargs: dict
Keywords passed to mne.Epochs()
Returns
epoch_trigger(events, trigger)
Selects a single epoch trigger from a tuple with event information.
Epoch triggers have values between 1 and 127 (inclusive).
Parameters
Returns
PupilEpochs(*args, baseline_trim=(-2, 2), channel='PupilSize', **kwargs)
An Epochs class for the PupilSize channel. This allows baseline
correction to be applied to pupil size, even though this channel is not a
regular data channel. In addition, this class allows pupil sizes to be
excluded based on deviant baseline values, which is recommended for
pupil analysis (but not typically done for eeg).
Parameters
-
*args: iterable
Arguments passed to mne.Epochs()
-
baseline_trim: tuple of int, optional
The range of acceptable baseline values. This refers to z-scores.
-
channel: str, optional
The channel name that contains pupil-size data
-
**kwargs: dict
Keywords passed to mne.Epochs()
Returns
read_subject(subject_nr, folder='data/', trigger_parser=None, eeg_margin=30, min_sacc_dur=10, min_sacc_size=100, min_blink_dur=10, blink_annotation='BLINK', saccade_annotation='SACCADE', eeg_preprocessing=True, save_preprocessing_output=True, plot_preprocessing=False, eye_kwargs={}, downsample_data_kwargs={}, drop_unused_channels_kwargs={}, rereference_channels_kwargs={}, create_eog_channels_kwargs={}, set_montage_kwargs={}, annotate_emg_kwargs={}, band_pass_filter_kwargs={}, autodetect_bad_channels_kwargs={}, run_ica_kwargs={}, auto_select_ica_kwargs={}, interpolate_bads_kwargs={})
Reads EEG, eye-tracking, and behavioral data for a single participant.
This data should be organized according to the BIDS specification.
EEG data is assumed to be in BrainVision data format (.vhdr
, .vmrk
,
.eeg
). Eye-tracking data is assumed to be in EyeLink data format (.edf
or .asc
). Behavioral data is assumed to be in .csv
format.
Metadata is taken from the behavioral .csv
file if present, and from
the eye-tracking data if not.
Important: This function uses persistent memoization, which means that
the results for a given set of arguments are stored on disk and returned
right away for subsequent calls. For more information, see
https://pydatamatrix.eu/memoization/
Parameters
-
subject_nr: int or sr
The subject number to parse. If an int is passed, the subject number
is assumed to be zero-padded to length two (e.g. '01'). If a string
is passed, the string is used directly.
-
folder: str, optional
The folder in which the data is stored.
-
trigger_parser: callable, optional
A function that converts annotations to events. If no function is
specified, triggers are assumed to be encoded by the OpenVibe
acquisition software and to follow the convention for indicating
trial numbers and event onsets as described in the readme.
-
eeg_margin: int, optional
The number of seconds after the last trigger to keep. The rest of the
data will be cropped to save memory (in case long periods of extraneous
data were recorded).
-
min_sacc_dur: int, optional
The minimum duration of a saccade before it is annotated as a
BAD_SACCADE.
-
min_sacc_size: int, optional
The minimum size of a saccade (in pixels) before it is annotated as a
saccade.
-
min_blink_dur: int, optional
The minimum duration of a blink before it is annotated as a blink.
-
blink_annotation: str, optional
The annotation label to be used for blinks. Use a BAD_ suffix to
use blinks a bads annotations.
-
saccade_annotation: str, optional
The annotation label to be used for saccades. Use a BAD_ suffix to
use saccades a bads annotations.
-
eeg_preprocessing: bool or list, optional
Indicates whether EEG preprocessing should be performed. If True
,
then all preprocessing steps are performed. If a list is passed, then
only those steps are performed for which the corresponding function
name is in the list (e.g. ['downsample_data', 'set_montage']
)
-
save_preprocessing_output: bool, optional
Indicates whether output generated during EEG preprocessing should be
saved.
-
plot_preprocessing: bool, optional
Indicates whether plots should be shown during EEG preprocessing.
-
eye_kwargs: dict, optional
Optional keyword arguments to be passed onto the EyeLink parser. If
traceprocessor is provided, a default traceprocessor is used with
advanced blink reconstruction enabled and 10x downsampling.
-
downsample_data_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
-
drop_unused_channels_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
-
rereference_channels_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
-
create_eog_channels_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
-
set_montage_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
-
annotate_emg_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
-
band_pass_filter_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
-
autodetect_bad_channels_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
-
run_ica_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
-
auto_select_ica_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
-
interpolate_bads_kwargs: dict, optional
Passed as keyword arguments to corresponding preprocessing function.
Returns
trial_trigger(events)
Selects all trial triggers from event information. Trial triggers have
values between 128 and 255 (inclusive).
Parameters
Returns
braindecode_utils.decode_subject(read_subject_kwargs, factors, epochs_kwargs, trigger, epochs_query='practice == "no"', epochs=4, window_size=200, window_stride=1, n_fold=4, crossdecode_read_subject_kwargs=None, crossdecode_factors=None, patch_data_func=None, read_subject_func=None, cuda=True, balance=True)
The main entry point for decoding a subject's data.
Parameters
-
read_subject_kwargs: dict
A dict with keyword arguments that are passed to eet.read_subject() to
load the data. Additional preprocessing as specified in
preprocess_raw()
is applied afterwards.
-
factors: str or list of str
A factor or list of factors that should be decoded. Factors should be
str and match column names in the metadata.
-
epochs_kwargs: dict, optional
A dict with keyword arguments that are passed to mne.Epochs() to
extract the to-be-decoded epoch.
-
trigger: int
The trigger code that defines the to-be-decoded epoch.
-
epochs_query: str, optional
A pandas-style query to select trials from the to-be-decoded epoch. The
default assumes that there is a practice
column from which we only
want to have the 'no' values, i.e. that we want exclude practice
trials.
-
epochs: int, optional
The number of training epochs, i.e. the number of times that the data
is fed into the model. This should be at least 2.
-
window_size_samples: int, optional
The length of the window to sample from the Epochs object. This should
be slightly shorter than the actual Epochs to allow for jittered
samples to be taken from the purpose of 'cropped decoding'.
-
window_stride_samples: int, optional
The number of samples to jitter around the window for the purpose of
cropped decoding.
-
n_fold: int, optional
The total number of splits (or folds). This should be at least 2.
-
crossdecode_read_subject_kwargs: dict or None, optional
When provided these read_subject_kwargs are passed to read_subject_func
for reading the to-be-decoded test dataset.
-
crossdecode_factors: str or list of str or None, optional
A factor or list of factors that should be decoded during tester. If
provided, the classifier is trained using the factors specified in
factors
and tested using the factors specified in
crossdecode_factors
. In other words, specifying this keyword allow
for crossdecoding.
-
patch_data_func: callable or None, optional
If provided, this should be a function that accepts a tuple of
(raw, events, metadata)
as returned by read_subject()
and also
returns a tuple of (raw, events, metadata)
. This function can modify
aspects of the data before decoding is applied.
-
read_subject_func: callable or None, optional
If provided, this should be a function that accepts keywords as
provided through the read_subject_kwargs
argument, and returns a
tuple of (raw, events, metadata)
. If not provided, the default
read_subject()
function is used.
-
cuda: bool, optional
If True, cuda will be used for GPU processing if it is available. If
False, cuda won't be used, not even when it is available.
-
balance: bool, optional
Makes sure that a dataset contains an equal number of observations for
each label by randomly duplicating observations from labels that have
too few observations.
Returns
License
eeg_eyetracking_parser
is licensed under the GNU General Public License
v3.