Mind-Reading Neural Network Uses Brain Waves to Recreate Human Thoughts

It has long been the stuff of science fiction but now mind-reading machines may actually be here and they may not be invasive. Researchers from the Russian corporation Neurobotics and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have found a way to visualize a person's brain activity as actual images without the use of invasive brain implants. The work has the potential to enable new non-invasive post-stroke rehabilitation devices controlled by brain signals as well as novel cognitive disorder treatments. In order to do achieve such applications, neurobiologists need to understand how the brain encodes information by studying it in real-time such as when a person is watching a video. This is where the new brain-computer interface developed by the researchers comes in. Using artificial neural networks and electroencephalography, or EEG, a technique for recording brain waves via electrodes placed noninvasively on the scalp, the team was able to visualize what test subjects were looking at in videos in real-time.