# ViEEG: Hierarchical Visual Neural Representation for EEG Brain Decoding

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.12408 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12408/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 15 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 May 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.01952/) (2023)
- [EEGNet: A Compact Convolutional Network for EEG-based Brain-Computer Interfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.08024/) (2016)
- [Reconstructing the Mind's Eye: fMRI-to-Image with Contrastive Learning and Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18274/) (2023)
- [Decoding Natural Images from EEG for Object Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.13234/) (2023)
- [Visual Decoding and Reconstruction via EEG Embeddings with Guided Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.07721/) (2024)
- [Decoding Visual Neural Representations by Multimodal Learning of Brain-Visual-Linguistic Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.06756/) (2022)
- [DreamDiffusion: Generating High-Quality Images from Brain EEG Signals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.16934/) (2023)
- [Contrast, Attend and Diffuse to Decode High-Resolution Images from Brain Activities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17214/) (2023)
- [NeuroPictor: Refining fMRI-to-Image Reconstruction via Multi-individual Pretraining and Multi-level Modulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.18211/) (2024)
- [BrainVis: Exploring the Bridge between Brain and Visual Signals via Image Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14871/) (2023)
- [CognitionCapturer: Decoding Visual Stimuli From Human EEG Signal With Multimodal Information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.10489/) (2024)
- [CLIP-MUSED: CLIP-Guided Multi-Subject Visual Neural Information Semantic Decoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.08994/) (2024)
- [Natural Image Reconstruction from fMRI using Deep Learning: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.09006/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Unveiling Deep Semantic Uncertainty Perception for Language-Anchored Multi-modal Vision-Brain Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.04078/) (2025)
- [Multi-Level Bidirectional Biomimetic Learning for EEG-Based Visual Decoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.04680/) (2026)
- [ProCA: Progressive Contrastive Alignment for Robust EEG Visual Decoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.05094/) (2026)
- [The Visual Target Matters: Learning across the Visual Hierarchy for Brain-to-Image Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.24136/) (2026)
- [RPA: Residual Patch-Token Adapter for Image Retrieval from EEG and MEG](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.31698/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Understanding and decoding brain activity into visual representations is a fundamental challenge at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence. While EEG visual decoding has shown promise due to its non-invasive, and low-cost nature, existing methods suffer from Hierarchical Neural Encoding Neglect (HNEN)-a critical limitation where flat neural representations fail to model the brain's hierarchical visual processing hierarchy. Inspired by the hierarchical organization of visual cortex, we propose ViEEG, a neuro-We further adopt hierarchical contrastive learning for EEG-CLIP representation alignment, enabling zero-shot object recognition. Extensive experiments on the THINGS-EEG dataset demonstrate that ViEEG significantly outperforms previous methods by a large margin in both subject-dependent and subject-independent settings. Results on the THINGS-MEG dataset further confirm ViEEG's generalization to different neural modalities. Our framework not only advances the performance frontier but also sets a new paradigm for EEG brain decoding. inspired framework that addresses HNEN. ViEEG decomposes each visual stimulus into three biologically aligned components-contour, foreground object, and contextual scene-serving as anchors for a three-stream EEG encoder. These EEG features are progressively integrated via cross-attention routing, simulating cortical information flow from low-level to high-level vision.