MindBridge: A Cross-Subject Brain Decoding Framework

Abstract

Brain decoding a pivotal field in neuroscience aims to reconstruct stimuli from acquired brain signals primarily utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Currently brain decoding is confined to a per-subject-per-model paradigm limiting its applicability to the same individual for whom the decoding model is trained. This constraint stems from three key challenges: 1) the inherent variability in input dimensions across subjects due to differences in brain size; 2) the unique intrinsic neural patterns influencing how different individuals perceive and process sensory information; 3) limited data availability for new subjects in real-world scenarios hampers the performance of decoding models. In this paper we present a novel approach MindBridge that achieves cross-subject brain decoding by employing only one model. Our proposed framework establishes a generic paradigm capable of addressing these challenges by introducing biological-inspired aggregation function and novel cyclic fMRI reconstruction mechanism for subject-invariant representation learning. Notably by cycle reconstruction of fMRI MindBridge can enable novel fMRI synthesis which also can serve as pseudo data augmentation. Within the framework we also devise a novel reset-tuning method for adapting a pretrained model to a new subject. Experimental results demonstrate MindBridge's ability to reconstruct images for multiple subjects which is competitive with dedicated subject-specific models. Furthermore with limited data for a new subject we achieve a high level of decoding accuracy surpassing that of subject-specific models. This advancement in cross-subject brain decoding suggests promising directions for wider applications in neuroscience and indicates potential for more efficient utilization of limited fMRI data in real-world scenarios. Project page: https://littlepure2333.github.io/MindBridge