SpikeInterface / SpikeInterface/spikeinterface

Question about LFP scaling and units in export_to_ibl_gui()

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Description

Hi,

while using export_to_ibl_gui() (SpikeInterface 0.102.3) to prepare data for the IBL ephys alignment GUI, I noticed what might be an inconsistency in the expected units of the LFP input data.

My understanding is:

  • The LFP data used for calculating the LFP RMS values are expected in physical units (µV).
  • The LFP data used for calculating the PSD values appear to be expected in ADC units and are converted to physical units (µV) within export_to_ibl_gui().

This made me wonder whether export_to_ibl_gui() is consistently handling scaling when computing the exported LFP features.

Could you clarify:

  1. What units are expected for the input lfp_recording?
  2. Are both RMS and PSD computed from scaled traces (return_scaled=True)?

I may be misunderstanding how the function interprets the LFP values, but I wanted to check whether there is a potential unit mismatch between the RMS and PSD exports.

Thanks!

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Research direction

Locate export_to_ibl_gui() and trace how lfp_recording is read in the RMS and PSD calculation paths, including any scaling options. Compare the documented input units with the values used for each exported feature; done means the unit behavior is clarified and any mismatch is covered by the relevant tests or documentation.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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