--- title: "Scientists Say They’ve Figured Out a Way to Read Thoughts Using an MRI Machine" description: "Researchers claim to have built a \"decoder\" algorithm that can reconstruct what somebody is thinking just by monitoring their brain activity using MRI." date: "2022-10-26" modified: "2022-10-26" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-read-thoughts-mri-machine" categories: - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" - "Neuroscience and Brain" tags: - "algorithms" - "brain activity" - "brain computer interfaces" --- # Scientists Say They’ve Figured Out a Way to Read Thoughts Using an MRI Machine ![Researchers claim to have built a "decoder" algorithm that can reconstruct what somebody is thinking just by monitoring their brain activity using MRI.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* Researchers at the University of Texas claim to have built a "decoder" algorithm that can reconstruct what somebody is thinking just by monitoring their brain activity using an ordinary fMRI scanner, [*The Scientist* reports](). The yet-to-be-peer-reviewed research could lay the groundwork for much more capable brain-computer interfaces designed to better help those can't speak or type. In an experiment, the researchers used MRI machines to measure the changes in blood flow — not the firing of individual neurons, which is infamously "noisy" and difficult to decrypt — to decode the broader sentiment or semantics of what three study subjects were thinking while listening to 16 hours of podcasts and radio stories. They used this data to train an algorithm that they say can associate these blood flow changes with what the subjects were currently listening to. The results were promising, with the decoder being able to deduce meaning "pretty well," as University of Texas neuroscientist and coauthor Alexander Huth told *The Scientist*. However, the system had some shortcomings. For instance, the decoder often mixed up who said what in the radio and podcast recordings. In other words, the algorithm "knows what’s happening pretty accurately, but not who is doing the things, " Huth explained. The algorithm was also not able to use what it had learned from one participant's brain scans semantics and apply that to another's scans, intriguingly. Despite these shortcomings, the decoder was even able to deduce a story when participants watched a silent film, meaning that it's not limited to spoken language, either. That suggests these findings could also help us understand the functions of different regions of the brain and how they overlap in making sense of the world. Other neuroscientists, who were not directly involved, were impressed. Sam Nastase, a researcher and lecturer at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, called the research "mind blowing," telling *The Scientist* that "if you have a smart enough modeling framework, you can actually pull out a surprising amount of information" from these kinds of recordings. Yukiyasu Kamitani, a computational neuroscientist at Kyoto University, agreed, telling *The Scientist* that the study "sets a solid ground for \[brain-computer interface\] applications." **READ MORE:** [Researchers Report Decoding Thoughts from fMRI Data]() \[*The Scientist*\] **More on reading brains:** *[Neuralink Cofounder Leaves as Brain Company Descends Into Chaos]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()