BEST Toolbox: Brain Electrophysiological recording & STimulation Toolbox

Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) experiments involve many standard procedures that are nonetheless not sufficiently standardized in the community. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) protocols usually require motor hotspot search, motor threshold hunting, motor evoked potential (MEP) and TMS-evoked EEG potential (TEP) measurements, estimation of stimulus-response curves, paired-pulse TMS, rTMS intervention protocols, etc., and since recently also real-time EEG-triggered stimulation. Given the diversity in application and experience of the experimenter, standardized, automated, and yet flexible, data collection and analysis tools are needed. Here, we introduce the Brain Electrophysiological recording and STimulation (BEST) Toolbox, a MATLAB based open source software that interfaces with a wide variety of EEG, EMG, and TMS devices, and allows to run flexibly configured but fully automated closed-loop protocols. The BEST toolbox provides a software framework for brain stimulation studies, including real-time closed-loop applications. It is powered by state-of-the-art signal processing algorithms, combined with an easy to use graphical user interface (GUI) in order to facilitate data collection, live and interactive data analyses and visualization, data sharing, study comparison and replication, student training, and open science.