Mind reading is no longer fiction — it’s becoming our reality.

Mind reading is associated with science fiction movies or supernatural powers. Few would associate it with functional magnetic resonance imaging and artificial intelligence, meticulously trained for years by scientists.

[Image by Tumisu, please consider ☕ Thank you! 🤗 from Pixabay]

Imagine a world where you search the internet using an image you create in your head. A world where creating the perfect kitchen doesn’t require hours spent browsing the web, consulting interior designers and visiting store after store, but just uploading the image from your head to your computer. Or think of a vacation where instead of a camera (actually, now a phone) you use your eyes to capture views of the Alps. What, on the other hand, sounds like a vision in which you would be able to record and replay your dreams?

While such scenarios seem extremely far away technologically, they are not completely disconnected from reality. This is thanks to algorithms that can read and process functional magnetic resonance imaging records in an attempt to map the images currently “in” our brains.

Functional MRI in the service of science.

To understand the science that has been achieved so far, it is important to familiarize yourself with what magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are…