A team of researchers say they have used machine - eruditeness to recreate ikon in our brains , from pictures subjects were looking at to things they remember experience .
The research , which has not yet been peer - reviewed , was behave by scientist from Kyoto University in Japan and led by Yukiyasu Kamitani . Using functional magnetic plangency imaging ( fMRI ) , the squad said they were able to reconstruct mental image seen by our nous .
In their theme , useable onbioRxiv , a number of images were presented that were recreated by the artificial intelligence , known as a deep neural meshwork ( DNN ) . Each figure of speech was recreated pel by pixel by the DNN , yield images that resemble the initial double .
“ The consequence hint that hierarchal visual info in the mental capacity can be effectively combined to reconstruct perceptual and subjective images , ” the squad wrote in their paper .
The research builds onearlier workby the same squad that find out that brain activity patterns could be decoded into signal pattern . Other researchers have reportedsimilar workin this field .
“ This is a significant melioration on their early work , ” Professor Geraint Rees , a neuroimaging expert from University College London , toldThe Times .
In this latest paper , the researchers used three subjects ( two males age 33 and 23 , and one female senior 23 ) . They were show up look-alike of things like a Emily Price Post box and a lion , as well as geometric shape and alphabetical letters .
The range were project onto a silver screen in an fMRI scanner , with the head of the case assure in place with a bar for them to bite down on . Each then took part in multiple scanning session , each lasting a maximum of 2 hour , over 10 months .
The participant stared at each icon for a telephone number of seconds before give a rest in the first experiment . In the next experimentation , they had to plainly remember one of the trope they had seen antecedently and fancy it in their brain .
Using the DNN , the researchers then attempted to decode the signal recorded by the fMRI image scanner in guild to produce a computer - generated reconstructed image of what the participants saw .
The results were rather singular , with the DNN able-bodied to reproduce images of a DVD participant , foot with windsock on , a rainfly , and more . However , it was n’t too hot on other image , like a individual with a cowboy chapeau or a snowmobile , but the effect are impressive all the same .
“ Our approach could provide a unique window into our intimate world by translating brain activity into images , ” the squad noted .
