AIND Ephys IBL GUI Conversion

Convert AIND Neuropixels electrophysiology data into IBL ALF format for consumption by the IBL ephys alignment GUI. It extracts spike data from SpikeInterface sorting output and computes continuous QC metrics (RMS, spectral density, per-band coherence) from raw Neuropixels recordings.

Installation

From source (no PyPI release):

git clone https://github.com/AllenNeuralDynamics/aind-ephys-ibl-gui-conversion.git
cd aind-ephys-ibl-gui-conversion
pip install .

Or add as a dependency:

uv add "aind-ephys-ibl-gui-conversion @ git+https://github.com/AllenNeuralDynamics/aind-ephys-ibl-gui-conversion.git"

Usage

This package is a library -- there is no CLI. The two top-level entry points are extract_spikes() and extract_continuous(), both imported from the package root:

from pathlib import Path
from aind_ephys_ibl_gui_conversion import extract_spikes, extract_continuous

sorting_folder = Path("/path/to/<session>_sorted")
results_folder = Path("/path/to/output")

# Convert sorted spikes into IBL ALF format
extract_spikes(sorting_folder, results_folder)

# Compute continuous QC metrics (RMS, PSD, coherence)
extract_continuous(sorting_folder, results_folder)

Both functions write one subdirectory per probe under results_folder.

extract_spikes(sorting_folder, results_folder, ...)

Reads the postprocessed/ directory inside sorting_folder and writes IBL ALF spike files per probe.

extract_continuous(sorting_folder, results_folder, ...)

Reads compressed Neuropixels recordings from ecephys_compressed/ and writes per-band RMS, PSD, and coherence files in IBL ALF format.

Coherence bands (from metrics.COHERENCE_BANDS):

Input data expectations

Both entry points expect the AIND session layout:

<session>/
|-- ecephys_clipped/                    # Open Ephys binary (read by SpikeInterface)
|-- ecephys_compressed/                 # Zarr + WavPack compressed recordings
|   |-- experiment1_<stream>.zarr
|   +-- experiment2_<stream>.zarr
|
+-- <session>_sorted/                   # SORTING_FOLDER argument points here
    +-- postprocessed/
        |-- experiment1_<stream>_recording1.zarr        # SortingAnalyzer
        +-- experiment1_<stream>_recording1_group<N>.zarr  # Multi-shank (one per shank)

The package handles both Neuropixels 1.0 (separate AP/LFP streams) and 2.0 (combined wideband) probes, as well as multi-shank probes.

Stream naming

Open Ephys stream names follow the pattern:

Record Node <id>#Neuropix-PXI-<model>.<probe_name>[-AP|-LFP]

For example, Record Node 104#Neuropix-PXI-100.ProbeA-AP is parsed into probe_name = "ProbeA".

Output format

All outputs are written under results_folder/<probe_name>/ in IBL ALF format.

From extract_spikes

From extract_continuous

Metrics method

For the directory boundary shared with preprocessing and the GUI, channel identity, shank derivation, matrix row maps, and split-stream examples, read the ephys collection contract. The datapackage references the collection directory, not individual QC files. Keep ALF objects at its root and correlation/coherency products in band_corr/.

RMS and PSD are computed via FFT, not time-domain filtering:

• Hann-windowed segments, Welch-style PSD
• Band-limited RMS via Parseval's theorem (integrate PSD over each band)
• AP band: > 300 Hz (neural noise); LFP band: 1 -- 300 Hz
• Across-channel common-median referencing is applied.
• Correlation and coherency combine all blocks by default. Set coherence_block_source="surface" to exclude main-recording artifacts while retaining surface-finding blocks; explicit asset provenance takes precedence over the legacy duration heuristic.

Adapting to your own data

The package is tightly coupled to the AIND session layout and Open Ephys stream naming. To adapt it to a different setup, the main integration points are:

1. Recording discovery: recording_utils.get_ecephys_stream_names() and io.load_probe_streams() enumerate compressed .zarr recordings under ecephys_compressed/. Replace these if your recordings live elsewhere or use a different container.
2. Stream name parsing: recording_utils._stream_to_probe_name() extracts the probe name via a regex over the Open Ephys stream ID. Replace this if your stream names follow a different convention.
3. Sorting output: extract_spikes() assumes SpikeInterface SortingAnalyzer output in <sorting_folder>/postprocessed/. If you have a different SortingAnalyzer location or a different post-processed format, point at it directly.
4. Surface-finding recordings: If you use separate "surface finding" recordings (short probe-movement blocks used to map the cortical surface), pass the asset path via probe_surface_finding. Otherwise leave it unset.

The output format is IBL ALF and is decoupled from input assumptions -- it will work with any IBL GUI consumer.

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md for developer setup, checks, and repository conventions. Coding agents should also read AGENTS.md.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License -- see the LICENSE file for details.