Reading and rebuilding minds

Stroke is a common cause of disability. Treatments provided in the ER can help, but most people with stroke do not receive these. A new family of therapies is emerging, with a focus on repairing the brain. These therapies build on the brain’s own processes for restoring function. Many types of therapy are under study, including drugs, cells, growth factors, and electric or magnetic stimulation. Intensive practice is also under study and is of double importance, first as a therapy in its own right and second as a cofactor that enables the other therapies, the latter underscoring that rewiring the brain after stroke occurs on the backbone of “experience-dependent plasticity.” This talk will review the major evidence to date for brain repair after stroke.

Neurons in the human brain respond to specific concepts (e.g. Rachel from Friends) including when a person remembers them. Using such neurons we can uncover people’s internal thoughts, but the odds of finding one for a new experience remains low. Our work finds AI deep learning models, applied to many neurons from humans recalling memories, can read their thoughts seconds before they say them.