AI Decodes Mind’s Imagery

Direct intracranial recordings in epileptic patients show that many of the same neurons in the fusiform gyrus active during visual perception reactivate during mental imagery; researchers used deep visual neural networks and generative AI to map the neurons' 'code' and to predict brain responses to novel images. The finding demonstrates that imagination reuses perceptual circuitry and that AI can translate neural patterns into image-like representations. — This opens ethical and policy questions about brain‑decoding technologies (privacy and consent), suggests new clinical paths for treating intrusive imagery in PTSD and schizophrenia, and illustrates how AI reshapes empirical science.