diff --git a/doc/changes/dev/13775.maintenance.rst b/doc/changes/dev/13775.maintenance.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0d396ffe630
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/changes/dev/13775.maintenance.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Modernize path handling in ``mne/misc.py`` using ``pathlib``, by :newcontrib:`Akhila Thammenenwar`.
diff --git a/doc/changes/devel/13775.maintenance.rst b/doc/changes/devel/13775.maintenance.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..168e520ca34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/changes/devel/13775.maintenance.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Modernize path handling in ``mne/misc.py`` using ``pathlib``, by `Akhila Thammenenwar`_.
diff --git a/doc/changes/names.inc b/doc/changes/names.inc
index 48c3b86d2be..b6796e88f2c 100644
--- a/doc/changes/names.inc
+++ b/doc/changes/names.inc
@@ -1,370 +1,3 @@
-.. _Aaron Earle-Richardson: https://github.com/Aaronearlerichardson
-.. _Abram Hindle: https://softwareprocess.es
-.. _Adam Li: https://github.com/adam2392
-.. _Adeline Fecker: https://github.com/adelinefecker
-.. _Adina Wagner: https://github.com/adswa
-.. _Adonay Nunes: https://github.com/AdoNunes
-.. _Alan Leggitt: https://github.com/leggitta
-.. _Alejandro Weinstein: http://ocam.cl
-.. _Alessandro Tonin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandro-tonin-7892b046
-.. _Alex Ciok: https://github.com/alexCiok
-.. _Alex Gramfort: https://alexandre.gramfort.net
-.. _Alex Kiefer: https://home.alexk101.dev
-.. _Alex Lepauvre: https://github.com/AlexLepauvre
-.. _Alex Rockhill: https://github.com/alexrockhill/
-.. _Alexander Rudiuk: https://github.com/ARudiuk
-.. _Alexandre Barachant: https://alexandre.barachant.org
-.. _Aman Srivastava: https://github.com/aman-coder03
-.. _Andrea Brovelli: https://brovelli.github.io/
-.. _Andreas Hojlund: https://github.com/ahoejlund
-.. _Andres Rodriguez: https://github.com/infinitejest/
-.. _Andrew Dykstra: https://github.com/adykstra
-.. _Andrew Gilbert: https://github.com/adgilbert
-.. _Andrew Quinn: https://github.com/ajquinn
-.. _Aniket Pradhan: https://github.com/Aniket-Pradhan
-.. _Aniket Singh Yadav: https://github.com/Aniketsy
-.. _Anna Padee: https://github.com/apadee/
-.. _Annalisa Pascarella: https://github.com/annapasca
-.. _Anne-Sophie Dubarry: https://github.com/annesodub
-.. _Antoine Collas: https://www.antoinecollas.fr
-.. _Antoine Gauthier: https://github.com/Okamille
-.. _Antti Rantala: https://github.com/Odingod
-.. _Apoorva Karekal: https://github.com/apoorva6262
-.. _Archit Singhal: https://github.com/architsinghal-mriirs
-.. _Arne Pelzer: https://github.com/aplzr
-.. _Ashley Drew: https://github.com/ashdrew
-.. _Asish Panda: https://github.com/kaichogami
-.. _Austin Hurst: https://github.com/a-hurst
-.. _Beige Jin: https://github.com/BeiGeJin
-.. _Ben Beasley: https://github.com/musicinmybrain
-.. _Benedikt Ehinger: https://www.benediktehinger.de
-.. _Bradley Voytek: https://github.com/voytek
-.. _Britta Westner: https://britta-wstnr.github.io
-.. _Bruno Aristimunha: https://bruaristimunha.github.io
-.. _Bruno Nicenboim: https://bnicenboim.github.io
-.. _btkcodedev: https://github.com/btkcodedev
-.. _buildqa: https://github.com/buildqa
-.. _Carina Forster: https://github.com/CarinaFo
-.. _Carlos de la Torre-Ortiz: https://ctorre.me
-.. _Cathy Nangini: https://github.com/KatiRG
-.. _Chetan Gohil: https://github.com/cgohil8
-.. _Chris Bailey: https://github.com/cjayb
-.. _Chris Holdgraf: https://chrisholdgraf.com
-.. _Chris Mullins: https://crmullins.com
-.. _Christian Brodbeck: https://github.com/christianbrodbeck
-.. _Christian O'Reilly: https://github.com/christian-oreilly
-.. _Christopher Dinh: https://github.com/chdinh
-.. _Chun-Hui Li: https://github.com/iamsc
-.. _Clemens Brunner: https://github.com/cbrnr
-.. _Cora Kim: https://github.com/kimcoco
-.. _Cristóbal Moënne-Loccoz: https://github.com/cmmoenne
-.. _Dan Wakeman: https://github.com/dgwakeman
-.. _Daniel Carlström Schad: https://github.com/DanielCSchad
-.. _Daniel Hasegan: https://daniel.hasegan.com
-.. _Daniel McCloy: https://dan.mccloy.info
-.. _Daniel Strohmeier: https://github.com/joewalter
-.. _Daniel Tse: https://github.com/Xiezhibin
-.. _Darin Erat Sleiter: https://github.com/dsleiter
-.. _David Haslacher: https://github.com/davidhaslacher
-.. _David Julien: https://github.com/Swy7ch
-.. _David Sabbagh: https://github.com/DavidSabbagh
-.. _Demetres Kostas: https://github.com/kostasde
-.. _Denis Engemann: https://denis-engemann.de
-.. _Dev Parikh: https://github.com/devparikh0506
-.. _Dinara Issagaliyeva: https://github.com/dissagaliyeva
-.. _Diptyajit Das: https://github.com/dasdiptyajit
-.. _Dirk Gütlin: https://github.com/DiGyt
-.. _Dmitrii Altukhov: https://github.com/dmalt
-.. _Dominik Welke: https://github.com/dominikwelke/
-.. _Dominik Wetzel: https://github.com/schmetzler
-.. _Dominique Makowski: https://dominiquemakowski.github.io/
-.. _Eberhard Eich: https://github.com/ebeich
-.. _Eduard Ort: https://github.com/eort
-.. _Emily Stephen: https://github.com/emilyps14
-.. _Emma Bailey: https://www.cbs.mpg.de/employees/bailey
-.. _Emma Zhang: https://portfolio-production-ed03.up.railway.app/
-.. _Emmanuel Ferdman: https://github.com/emmanuel-ferdman
-.. _Emrecan Çelik: https://github.com/emrecncelik
-.. _Enrico Varano: https://github.com/enricovara/
-.. _Enzo Altamiranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enzoalt
-.. _Eric Larson: https://larsoner.com
-.. _Erica Peterson: https://github.com/nordme
-.. _Erkka Heinila: https://github.com/Teekuningas
-.. _Etienne de Montalivet: https://github.com/etiennedemontalivet
-.. _Evan Hathaway: https://github.com/ephathaway
-.. _Evgenii Kalenkovich: https://github.com/kalenkovich
-.. _Evgeny Goldstein: https://github.com/evgenygoldstein
-.. _Ezequiel Mikulan: https://github.com/ezemikulan
-.. _Fahimeh Mamashli: https://github.com/fmamashli
-.. _Famous077: https://github.com/Famous077
-.. _Farzin Negahbani: https://github.com/Farzin-Negahbani
-.. _Federico Raimondo: https://github.com/fraimondo
-.. _Federico Zamberlan: https://github.com/fzamberlan
-.. _Felix Klotzsche: https://github.com/eioe
-.. _Felix Raimundo: https://github.com/gamazeps
-.. _Florian Hofer: https://github.com/hofaflo
-.. _Florin Pop: https://github.com/florin-pop
-.. _Frederik Weber: https://github.com/Frederik-D-Weber
-.. _Fu-Te Wong: https://github.com/zuxfoucault
-.. _Gennadiy Belonosov: https://github.com/Genuster
-.. _Geoff Brookshire: https://github.com/gbrookshire
-.. _George O'Neill: https://georgeoneill.github.io
-.. _Gnaneswar Lopinti: https://github.com/flying-spagetti
-.. _Gonzalo Reina: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4219-2306
-.. _Guillaume Dumas: https://mila.quebec/en/person/guillaume-dumas
-.. _Guillaume Favelier: https://github.com/GuillaumeFavelier
-.. _Hakimeh Aslsardroud: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hakimeh-Pourakbari
-.. _Hakimeh Pourakbari: https://github.com/Hpakbari
-.. _Hamid Maymandi: https://github.com/HamidMandi
-.. _Hamza Abdelhedi: https://github.com/BabaSanfour
-.. _Hansuja Budhiraja: https://github.com/HansujaB
-.. _Hari Bharadwaj: https://github.com/haribharadwaj
-.. _Harrison Ritz: https://github.com/harrisonritz
-.. _Hasrat Ali Arzoo: https://github.com/hasrat17
-.. _Henrich Kolkhorst: https://github.com/hekolk
-.. _Himanshu Mahor: https://github.com/1himan
-.. _Hongjiang Ye: https://github.com/ye-hongjiang
-.. _Hubert Banville: https://github.com/hubertjb
-.. _Hyonyoung Shin: https://github.com/mcvain
-.. _Hüseyin Orkun Elmas: https://github.com/HuseyinOrkun
-.. _Ilian Azz: https://github.com/ilianAZZ
-.. _Ilias Machairas: https://github.com/JungleHippo
-.. _Ivan Skelin: https://github.com/ivan-skelin
-.. _Ivan Zubarev: https://github.com/zubara
-.. _Ivana Kojcic: https://github.com/ikojcic
-.. _Ivo de Jong: https://github.com/ivopascal
-.. _Jaakko Leppakangas: https://github.com/jaeilepp
-.. _Jack Zhang: https://github.com/jackz314
-.. _Jacob Phelan: https://github.com/JacPhe
-.. _Jacob Woessner: https://github.com/withmywoessner
-.. _Jair Montoya Martinez: https://github.com/jmontoyam
-.. _Jan Ebert: https://www.jan-ebert.com/
-.. _Jan Sedivy: https://github.com/honzaseda
-.. _Jan Sosulski: https://jan-sosulski.de
-.. _Jan Zerfowski: https://github.com/jzerfowski
-.. _Jan-Mathijs Schoeffelen: https://github.com/schoffelen
-.. _Jasper van den Bosch: https://github.com/ilogue
-.. _Jean-Baptiste Schiratti: https://github.com/jbschiratti
-.. _Jean-Rémi King: https://github.com/kingjr
-.. _Jeff Stout: https://megcore.nih.gov/index.php/Staff
-.. _Jennifer Behnke: https://github.com/JKBehnke
-.. _Jeroen Van Der Donckt: https://github.com/jvdd
-.. _Jesper Duemose Nielsen: https://github.com/jdue
-.. _Jevri Hanna: https://github.com/jshanna100
-.. _jeythekey: https://github.com/jeythekey
-.. _Joan Massich: https://github.com/massich
-.. _Johann Benerradi: https://github.com/HanBnrd
-.. _Johannes Herforth: https://herforth.net
-.. _Johannes Niediek: https://github.com/jniediek
-.. _John Samuelsson: https://github.com/johnsam7
-.. _John Veillette: https://psychology.uchicago.edu/directory/john-veillette
-.. _Jon Houck: https://www.mrn.org/people/jon-m.-houck/principal-investigators
-.. _Jona Sassenhagen: https://github.com/jona-sassenhagen
-.. _Jonathan Kuziek:  https://github.com/kuziekj
-.. _Jordan Drew: https://github.com/jadrew43
-.. _Jose Alanis: https://github.com/JoseAlanis
-.. _Joshua Bear: https://github.com/joshbear
-.. _Joshua Calder-Travis: https://github.com/jCalderTravis
-.. _Joshua Teves: https://github.com/jbteves
-.. _Judy D Zhu: https://github.com/JD-Zhu
-.. _Juergen Dammers: https://github.com/jdammers
-.. _Jukka Nenonen: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jukka-nenonen/28/b5a/684
-.. _Jussi Nurminen: https://github.com/jjnurminen
-.. _Kaisu Lankinen: http://bishoplab.berkeley.edu/Kaisu.html
-.. _Katarina Slama: https://github.com/katarinaslama
-.. _Katia Al-Amir: https://github.com/katia-sentry
-.. _Kay Robbins: https://github.com/VisLab
-.. _Keith Doelling: https://github.com/kdoelling1919
-.. _Konstantinos Tsilimparis: https://contsili.github.io/
-.. _Kostiantyn Maksymenko: https://github.com/makkostya
-.. _Kristijan Armeni: https://github.com/kristijanarmeni
-.. _Kyle Mathewson: https://github.com/kylemath
-.. _Larry Eisenman:  https://github.com/lneisenman
-.. _Lau Møller Andersen: https://github.com/ualsbombe
-.. _Laura Gwilliams: https://lauragwilliams.github.io
-.. _Laurent Le Mentec: https://github.com/LaurentLM
-.. _Leonardo Barbosa: https://github.com/noreun
-.. _Leonardo Rochael Almeida: https://github.com/leorochael
-.. _Liberty Hamilton: https://github.com/libertyh
-.. _Lorenzo Desantis: https://github.com/lorenzo-desantis/
-.. _Lukas Breuer: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lukas-Breuer-2
-.. _Lukas Gemein: https://github.com/gemeinl
-.. _Luke Bloy: https://www.research.chop.edu/imaging/team
-.. _Lukáš Hejtmánek: https://github.com/hejtmy
-.. _Lx37: https://github.com/Lx37
-.. _Mads Jensen: https://github.com/MadsJensen
-.. _Maggie Clarke: https://github.com/mdclarke
-.. _Mainak Jas: https://jasmainak.github.io
-.. _Maksym Balatsko: https://github.com/mbalatsko
-.. _Marcin Koculak: https://github.com/mkoculak
-.. _Marian Dovgialo: https://github.com/mdovgialo
-.. _Marijn van Vliet: https://github.com/wmvanvliet
-.. _Mark Alexander Henney: https://github.com/henneysq
-.. _Mark Wronkiewicz: https://github.com/wronk
-.. _Marmaduke Woodman: https://github.com/maedoc
-.. _Martin Billinger: https://github.com/mbillingr
-.. _Martin Luessi: https://github.com/mluessi
-.. _Martin Oberg: https://github.com/obergmartin
-.. _Martin Schulz: https://github.com/marsipu
-.. _Mathieu Scheltienne: https://github.com/mscheltienne
-.. _Mathurin Massias: https://mathurinm.github.io/
-.. _Mats van Es: https://github.com/matsvanes
-.. _Matt Boggess: https://github.com/mattboggess
-.. _Matt Courtemanche: https://github.com/mjcourte
-.. _Matt Sanderson: https://github.com/monkeyman192
-.. _Matteo Anelli: https://github.com/matteoanelli
-.. _Matthias Dold: https://matthiasdold.de
-.. _Matthias Eberlein: https://github.com/MatthiasEb
-.. _Matti Hämäläinen: https://research.aalto.fi/en/persons/matti-h%C3%A4m%C3%A4l%C3%A4inen/
-.. _Matti Toivonen: https://github.com/mattitoi
-.. _Mauricio Cespedes Tenorio: https://github.com/mcespedes99
-.. _Melih Yayli: https://github.com/yaylim
-.. _Michael Straube: https://github.com/mistraube
-.. _Michal Žák: https://github.com/michalrzak
-.. _Michiru Kaneda: https://github.com/rcmdnk
-.. _Mikołaj Magnuski: https://github.com/mmagnuski
-.. _Milan Rybář: https://milanrybar.cz
-.. _Mingjian He: https://github.com/mh105
-.. _Mohammad Daneshzand: https://github.com/mdaneshzand
-.. _Mojackhak: https://github.com/Mojackhak
-.. _Moritz Gerster: https://github.com/moritz-gerster
-.. _Motofumi Fushimi: https://github.com/motofumi-fushimi/motofumi-fushimi.github.io
-.. _Nabil Alibou: https://github.com/nabilalibou
-.. _Natalie Klein: https://github.com/natalieklein
-.. _Nathalie Gayraud: https://github.com/ngayraud
-.. _Natneal B: https://github.com/natinew77-creator
-.. _Naveen Srinivasan: https://github.com/naveensrinivasan
-.. _Nick Foti: https://nfoti.github.io
-.. _Nick Ward: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/10827-nick-ward
-.. _Nicolas Barascud: https://github.com/nbara
-.. _Nicolas Fourcaud-Trocmé: https://www.crnl.fr/fr/user/316
-.. _Niels Focke: https://neurologie.umg.eu/forschung/arbeitsgruppen/epilepsie-und-bildgebungsforschung
-.. _Niklas Wilming: https://github.com/nwilming
-.. _Nikolai Chapochnikov: https://github.com/chapochn
-.. _Nikolai Kapralov: https://github.com/ctrltz
-.. _Nikolas Chalas: https://github.com/Nichalas
-.. _Noah Markowitz: https://github.com/nmarkowitz
-.. _Okba Bekhelifi: https://github.com/okbalefthanded
-.. _Olaf Hauk: https://neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/member/olafhauk
-.. _Ole Jensen: https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/people/ole-jensen
-.. _Oleh Kozynets: https://github.com/OlehKSS
-.. _Pablo Mainar: https://github.com/pablomainar
-.. _Pablo-Arias: https://github.com/Pablo-Arias
-.. _Padma Sundaram: https://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/user/8071
-.. _Paul Anders: https://github.com/Mettphysik
-.. _Paul Pasler: https://github.com/ppasler
-.. _Paul Roujansky: https://github.com/paulroujansky
-.. _Pavel Navratil: https://github.com/navrpa13
-.. _Peter Molfese: https://github.com/pmolfese
-.. _Phillip Alday: https://palday.bitbucket.io
-.. _Pierre Ablin: https://pierreablin.com
-.. _Pierre Guetschel: https://github.com/PierreGtch
-.. _Pierre-Antoine Bannier: https://github.com/PABannier
-.. _Ping-Keng Jao: https://github.com/nafraw
-.. _Pragnya Khandelwal: https://github.com/PragnyaKhandelwal
-.. _Proloy Das: https://github.com/proloyd
-.. _Qian Chu: https://github.com/qian-chu
-.. _Qianliang Li: https://www.dtu.dk/english/service/phonebook/person?id=126774
-.. _Quentin Barthélemy: https://github.com/qbarthelemy
-.. _Quentin Bertrand: https://github.com/QB3
-.. _Qunxi Dong: https://github.com/dongqunxi
-.. _Rahul Nadkarni: https://github.com/rahuln
-.. _Ram Pari: https://github.com/ramkpari
-.. _Ramiro Gatti: https://github.com/ragatti
-.. _ramonapariciog: https://github.com/ramonapariciog
-.. _Rasmus Aagaard: https://github.com/rasgaard
-.. _Rasmus Zetter: https://github.com/rzetter
-.. _Reza Nasri: https://github.com/rznas
-.. _Reza Shoorangiz: https://github.com/rezashr
-.. _Richard Höchenberger: https://github.com/hoechenberger
-.. _Richard Koehler: https://github.com/richardkoehler
-.. _Richard Scholz: https://github.com/scholzri
-.. _Riessarius Stargardsky: https://github.com/Riessarius
-.. _Roan LaPlante: https://github.com/aestrivex
-.. _Robert Luke: https://github.com/rob-luke
-.. _Robert Seymour: https://neurofractal.github.io
-.. _Romain Derollepot: https://github.com/rderollepot
-.. _Romain Trachel: https://fr.linkedin.com/in/trachelr
-.. _Roman Goj: https://romanmne.blogspot.co.uk
-.. _Rongfei Jin: https://github.com/greasycat
-.. _Ross Maddox: https://medicine.umich.edu/dept/khri/ross-maddox-phd
-.. _Rotem Falach: https://github.com/Falach
-.. _Roy Eric Wieske: https://github.com/Randomidous
-.. _Sammi Chekroud: https://github.com/schekroud
-.. _Samu Taulu: https://phys.washington.edu/people/samu-taulu
-.. _Samuel Deslauriers-Gauthier: https://github.com/sdeslauriers
-.. _Samuel Louviot: https://github.com/Sam54000
-.. _Samuel Powell: https://github.com/samuelpowell
-.. _Santeri Ruuskanen: https://github.com/ruuskas
-.. _Santi Martínez: https://github.com/szz-dvl
-.. _Sara Sommariva: https://github.com/sarasommariva
-.. _Sawradip Saha: https://sawradip.github.io/
-.. _Scott Huberty:  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2637-031X
-.. _Sebastiaan Mathot: https://www.cogsci.nl/smathot
-.. _Sebastian Castano: https://github.com/jscastanoc
-.. _Sebastian Jentschke: https://github.com/sjentsch
-.. _Sebastian Major: https://github.com/major-s
-.. _Sena Er: https://github.com/sena-neuro
-.. _Senwen Deng: https://snwn.de
-.. _Seyed Yahya Shirazi: https://neuromechanist.github.io
-.. _Sheraz Khan: https://github.com/SherazKhan
-.. _Shresth Keshari: https://github.com/shresth-keshari
-.. _Shristi Baral: https://github.com/shristibaral
-.. _Shruti Bhale: https://github.com/shruti423
-.. _Silvia Cotroneo: https://github.com/sfc-neuro
-.. _Simeon Wong: https://github.com/dtxe
-.. _Simon Kern: https://skjerns.de
-.. _Simon Kornblith: https://simonster.com
-.. _Simon M. Hofmann: https://github.com/SHEscher
-.. _Sondre Foslien: https://github.com/sondrfos
-.. _Sophie Herbst: https://github.com/SophieHerbst
-.. _Stanislas Chambon: https://github.com/Slasnista
-.. _Stefan Appelhoff: https://stefanappelhoff.com
-.. _Stefan Repplinger: https://github.com/stfnrpplngr
-.. _Steinn Hauser Magnusson: https://github.com/steinnhauser
-.. _Steven Bethard: https://github.com/bethard
-.. _Steven Bierer: https://github.com/neurolaunch
-.. _Steven Gutstein: https://github.com/smgutstein
-.. _Sumalyo Datta: https://github.com/Sumalyo
-.. _Susanna Aro: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanna-aro
-.. _Svea Marie Meyer: https://github.com/SveaMeyer13
-.. _Sébastien Marti: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sebastien-Marti
-.. _T. Wang: https://github.com/twang5
-.. _Tal Linzen: https://tallinzen.net/
-.. _Tamas Fehervari: https://github.com/zEdS15B3GCwq
-.. _Teon Brooks: https://github.com/teonbrooks
-.. _Tharupahan Jayawardana: https://github.com/tharu-jwd
-.. _Thomas Binns: https://github.com/tsbinns
-.. _Thomas Caswell: https://tacaswell.github.io
-.. _Thomas Hartmann: https://github.com/thht
-.. _Thomas Radman: https://github.com/tradman
-.. _Théodore Papadopoulo: https://github.com/papadop
-.. _Timothy Gates: https://au.linkedin.com/in/tim-gates-0528a4199
-.. _Timur Sokhin: https://github.com/Qwinpin
-.. _Tod Flak: https://github.com/todflak
-.. _Tom Ma: https://github.com/myd7349
-.. _Tom Stone: https://github.com/tomdstone
-.. _Tommy Clausner: https://github.com/TommyClausner
-.. _Toomas Erik Anijärv: https://github.com/teanijarv
-.. _Tristan Stenner: https://github.com/tstenner/
-.. _Tziona NessAiver: https://github.com/TzionaN
-.. _user27182: https://github.com/user27182
-.. _Valerii Chirkov: https://github.com/vagechirkov
-.. _varshaa-1616: https://github.com/varshaa-1616
-.. _Varun Kasyap Pentamaraju: https://github.com/varunkasyap
-.. _Velu Prabhakar Kumaravel: https://github.com/vpKumaravel
-.. _Victor Ferat: https://github.com/vferat
-.. _Victoria Peterson: https://github.com/vpeterson
-.. _Wei Xu: https://github.com/psyxw
-.. _Will Turner: https://bootstrapbill.github.io
-.. _Wouter Kroot: https://github.com/WouterKroot
-.. _Xabier de Zuazo: https://github.com/zuazo
-.. _Xiaokai Xia: https://github.com/dddd1007
-.. _Yaroslav Halchenko: http://haxbylab.dartmouth.edu/ppl/yarik.html
-.. _Yiping Zuo: https://github.com/frostime
-.. _Yixiao Shen: https://github.com/SYXiao2002
-.. _Yousra Bekhti: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/yousra-bekhti/56/886/421
-.. _Yu-Han Luo: https://github.com/yh-luo
-.. _Zhi Zhang: https://github.com/tczhangzhi/
-.. _Ziyi ZENG: https://github.com/ZiyiTsang
-.. _Zvi Baratz: https://github.com/ZviBaratz
+.. _Akhila Thammenenwar: https://github.com/Akhila21-6
+.. _Akhila Thammenenwar: https://github.com/Akhila21-6
+.. _Akhila Thammenenwar: https://github.com/Akhila21-6
diff --git a/mne/misc.py b/mne/misc.py
index bea711f927d..7b373e1dc92 100644
--- a/mne/misc.py
+++ b/mne/misc.py
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 # License: BSD-3-Clause
 # Copyright the MNE-Python contributors.
 
+from pathlib import Path
+
 
 def parse_config(fname):
     """Parse a config file (like .ave and .cov files).
@@ -20,10 +22,11 @@ def parse_config(fname):
             tmin, tmax, name, grad_reject, mag_reject,
             eeg_reject, eog_reject
     """
+    fname = Path(fname)
+
     reject_params = read_reject_parameters(fname)
 
-    with open(fname) as f:
-        lines = f.readlines()
+    lines = fname.read_text().splitlines()
 
     cat_ind = [i for i, x in enumerate(lines) if "category {" in x]
     event_dict = dict()
@@ -67,14 +70,17 @@ def read_reject_parameters(fname):
     params : dict
         The rejection parameters.
     """
-    with open(fname) as f:
-        lines = f.readlines()
+    fname = Path(fname)
+    lines = fname.read_text().splitlines()
 
     reject_names = ["gradReject", "magReject", "eegReject", "eogReject", "ecgReject"]
     reject_pynames = ["grad", "mag", "eeg", "eog", "ecg"]
     reject = dict()
     for line in lines:
         words = line.split()
+        # Defensive check for empty lines
+        if not words:
+            continue
         if words[0] in reject_names:
             reject[reject_pynames[reject_names.index(words[0])]] = float(words[1])