AI Decodes Visual Brain Activity—and Writes Captions for It

image via New Scientist

November 6, 2025, 6:30 PM

• •A non-invasive imaging technique translates scenes in your head into sentences.
• •The technique offers clues for how the brain represents the world before thoughts are put into words.
• •It might be able to help people with language difficulties, such as those caused by strokes, to better communicate.
• •This technique could improve how brain–computer interfaces translate non-verbal mental representations into text.

A new technique called 'mind captioning' uses brain activity to generate descriptive sentences of what a person is seeing or picturing, demonstrating impressive accuracy. Researchers use functional magnetic resonance imaging to decode brain activity patterns, translating them into meaning signatures that AI then converts into sentences. This method offers insights into how the brain represents the world and could potentially aid individuals with language difficulties. While raising concerns about mental privacy, the technology currently requires consent and cannot discern private thoughts.

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