In SPM for M/EEG, there are several major changes from SPM5 to SPM8.
 
First, we changed the internal M/EEG format of SPM in many ways to make reading/writing and manipulating M/EEG data more robust and straightforward for the user. Effectively, we invested a lot of effort into rebuilding almost from scratch the ‘SPM for EEG’ machinery.
 
Second, there are now three ways of implementing M/EEG analyses in SPM. These are the graphical user interface, and two scripting methods (batch analysis). These batch facilities come in handy for multi-subject studies. As in fMRI analysis, many processing steps are repetitive and it is now quite straightforward to automatize the software to a high degree.
 
Third, we now have a collaboration with the Fieldtrip software (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging; head developer: R. Oostenveld) and pooled resources for converting data from their native format to our software. Fieldtrip and SPM now also share software for computing leadfields, and other functions. Furthermore, it is now possible to convert, within SPM8, SPM data to Fieldtrip, and back. This powerful feature makes it possible to use, within SPM, many Fieldtrip functions. For example, it is quite straightforward, using a script, to work within SPM, and use Fieldtrip functions to do different aspects of the preprocessing. This extends SPM8 functionality to a high degree.
 
Fieldtrip: http://www.ru.nl/neuroimaging/fieldtrip/
 
These descriptions of the new features are taken from the SPM8 Release Notes
 
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