# Contrast, Attend and Diffuse to Decode High-Resolution Images from Brain Activities

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.17214 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17214/

## Key facts

- Cited by 36 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 29 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 26 May 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Representation Learning with Contrastive Predictive Coding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.03748/) (2018)
- [Masked Autoencoders Are Scalable Vision Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.06377/) (2021)
- [Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03585/) (2015)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00667/) (2022)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [Neural Discrete Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.00937/) (2017)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12242/) (2022)
- [Taming Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09841/) (2020)
- [An Empirical Study of Training Self-Supervised Vision Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.02057/) (2021)
- [T2I-Adapter: Learning Adapters to Dig out More Controllable Ability for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08453/) (2023)
- [SimMIM: A Simple Framework for Masked Image Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.09886/) (2021)
- [DiffusionCLIP: Text-Guided Diffusion Models for Robust Image Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.02711/) (2021)
- [Analytic-DPM: an Analytic Estimate of the Optimal Reverse Variance in Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.06503/) (2022)
- [Generic decoding of seen and imagined objects using hierarchical visual features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1510.06479/) (2015)
- [Mind Reader: Reconstructing complex images from brain activities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.01769/) (2022)
- [Alleviating Exposure Bias in Diffusion Models through Sampling with Shifted Time Steps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15583/) (2023)
- [BOLD5000: A public fMRI dataset of 5000 images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.01281/) (2018)
- [Recurrence is required to capture the representational dynamics of the human visual system](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.05946/) (2019)
- [Reconstruction of Perceived Images from fMRI Patterns and Semantic Brain Exploration using Instance-Conditioned GANs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.12692/) (2022)
- [Reconstructing Natural Scenes from fMRI Patterns using BigBiGAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.11761/) (2020)
- [Reconstructing Perceptive Images from Brain Activity by Shape-Semantic GAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.12083/) (2021)
- [Semantic Brain Decoding: from fMRI to conceptually similar image reconstruction of visual stimuli](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06726/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 36)

- [MindEye2: Shared-Subject Models Enable fMRI-To-Image With 1 Hour of Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.11207/) (2024)
- [Improving visual image reconstruction from human brain activity using latent diffusion models via multiple decoded inputs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.11536/) (2023)
- [Neuro-3D: Towards 3D Visual Decoding from EEG Signals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.12248/) (2024)
- [Deep Neural Networks and Brain Alignment: Brain Encoding and Decoding (Survey)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10246/) (2023)
- [Brain-Conditional Multimodal Synthesis: A Survey and Taxonomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.00430/) (2023)
- [MinD-3D: Reconstruct High-quality 3D objects in Human Brain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.07485/) (2023)
- [CineBrain: A Large-Scale Multi-Modal Brain Dataset During Naturalistic Audiovisual Narrative Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06940/) (2025)
- [NeuroCine: Decoding Vivid Video Sequences from Human Brain Activties](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01590/) (2024)
- [Animate Your Motion: Turning Still Images into Dynamic Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10179/) (2024)
- [MulCogBench: A Multi-modal Cognitive Benchmark Dataset for Evaluating Chinese and English Computational Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01116/) (2024)
- [Exploring Behavior-Relevant and Disentangled Neural Dynamics with Generative Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.09614/) (2024)
- [NSD-Imagery: A benchmark dataset for extending fMRI vision decoding methods to mental imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06898/) (2025)
- [Quantum-Brain: Quantum-Inspired Neural Network Approach to Vision-Brain Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.13378/) (2024)
- [A Survey on fMRI-based Brain Decoding for Reconstructing Multimodal Stimuli](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15978/) (2025)
- [MinD-3D++: Advancing fMRI-Based 3D Reconstruction with High-Quality Textured Mesh Generation and a Comprehensive Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.11315/) (2024)
- [Decoding Visual Experience and Mapping Semantics through Whole-Brain Analysis Using fMRI Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.07121/) (2024)
- [Reanimating Images using Neural Representations of Dynamic Stimuli](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.02659/) (2024)
- [BrainBits: How Much of the Brain are Generative Reconstruction Methods Using?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.02783/) (2024)
- [ViEEG: Hierarchical Visual Neural Representation for EEG Brain Decoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12408/) (2025)
- [Tuning In to Neural Encoding: Linking Human Brain and Artificial Supervised Representations of Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04460/) (2023)
- [BrainChat: Decoding Semantic Information from fMRI using Vision-language Pretrained Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07584/) (2024)
- [Consistent Story Generation: Unlocking the Potential of Zigzag Sampling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09612/) (2025)
- [MapGuide: A Simple yet Effective Method to Reconstruct Continuous Language from Brain Activities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17516/) (2024)
- [Artificial Intelligence for Biomedical Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.07619/) (2024)
- [From Flat to Round: Redefining Brain Decoding with Surface-Based fMRI and Cortex Structure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16389/) (2025)
- [Decoding the Echoes of Vision from fMRI: Memory Disentangling for Past Semantic Information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.20428/) (2024)
- [Towards More Accurate Personalized Image Generation: Addressing Overfitting and Evaluation Bias](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06632/) (2025)
- [3D-Telepathy: Reconstructing 3D Objects from EEG Signals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.21843/) (2025)
- [Discovering Semantic Subdimensions through Disentangled Conceptual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.21436/) (2025)
- [DynaMind: Reconstructing Dynamic Visual Scenes from EEG by Aligning Temporal Dynamics and Multimodal Semantics to Guided Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.01177/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Decoding visual stimuli from neural responses recorded by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) presents an intriguing intersection between cognitive neuroscience and machine learning, promising advancements in understanding human visual perception and building non-invasive brain-machine interfaces. However, the task is challenging due to the noisy nature of fMRI signals and the intricate pattern of brain visual representations. To mitigate these challenges, we introduce a two-phase fMRI representation learning framework. The first phase pre-trains an fMRI feature learner with a proposed Double-contrastive Mask Auto-encoder to learn denoised representations. The second phase tunes the feature learner to attend to neural activation patterns most informative for visual reconstruction with guidance from an image auto-encoder. The optimized fMRI feature learner then conditions a latent diffusion model to reconstruct image stimuli from brain activities. Experimental results demonstrate our model's superiority in generating high-resolution and semantically accurate images, substantially exceeding previous state-of-the-art methods by 39.34% in the 50-way-top-1 semantic classification accuracy. Our research invites further exploration of the decoding task's potential and contributes to the development of non-invasive brain-machine interfaces.