Mind-Reading A.I. Might Understand Our Brains Before We Do, Says Scientist

Purdue University researcher Zhongming Liu has been studying the inner workings of the mind for nearly two decades. His goal is to understand how our brains form mental images based on what we see around us. It's one of the most complex questions in neuroscience, and Liu tells Inverse he and his team just got a major assist in understanding human brains from a machine mind. "I've been working on this for years," says Liu. "And it wasn't until now that I've been able to get a substantial breakthrough with the help of A.I." As Liu and his fellow researchers detail in the journal Cerebral Cortex, they used an A.I. neural network -- the same basic tech used in computers and phones for facial recognition -- to interpret the results of MRI scans of people watching videos. The A.I. then revealed what parts of the brain were responding to what images.