# Scaling Next-Brain-Token Prediction for MEG

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.20138 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.20138/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 21 of its 45 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Qwen2.5-VL Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13923/) (2025)
- [Neural Discrete Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.00937/) (2017)
- [Glow: Generative Flow with Invertible 1x1 Convolutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.03039/) (2018)
- [Cosmos World Foundation Model Platform for Physical AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03575/) (2025)
- [Emu3: Next-Token Prediction is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.18869/) (2024)
- [Chronos: Learning the Language of Time Series](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.07815/) (2024)
- [A decoder-only foundation model for time-series forecasting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10688/) (2023)
- [Large Brain Model for Learning Generic Representations with Tremendous EEG Data in BCI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.18765/) (2024)
- [TimeGPT-1](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03589/) (2023)
- [Emu3.5: Native Multimodal Models are World Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.26583/) (2025)
- [Evaluating the World Model Implicit in a Generative Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.03689/) (2024)
- [NeuroLM: A Universal Multi-task Foundation Model for Bridging the Gap between Language and EEG Signals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00101/) (2024)
- [Instruction-tuning Aligns LLMs to the Human Brain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00575/) (2023)
- [Learning From Brains How to Regularize Machines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05072/) (2019)
- [VidTok: A Versatile and Open-Source Video Tokenizer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.13061/) (2024)
- [BrainOmni: A Brain Foundation Model for Unified EEG and MEG Signals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18185/) (2025)
- [Improving Semantic Understanding in Speech Language Models via Brain-tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.09230/) (2024)
- [fMRI-LM: Towards a Universal Foundation Model for Language-Aligned fMRI Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.21760/) (2025)
- [NeuroRVQ: Multi-Scale Biosignal Tokenization for Generative Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.13068/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present a large autoregressive model for source-space MEG that scales next-token prediction to long context across datasets and scanners: handling a corpus of over 500 hours and thousands of sessions across the three largest MEG datasets. A modified SEANet-style vector-quantizer reduces multichannel MEG into a flattened token stream on which we train a Qwen2.5-VL backbone from scratch to predict the next brain token and to recursively generate minutes of MEG from up to a minute of context. To evaluate long-horizon generation, we introduce task-matched tests: (i) on-manifold stability via generated-only drift compared to the time-resolved distribution of real sliding windows, and (ii) conditional specificity via correct context versus prompt-swap controls using a neurophysiologically grounded metric set. We train on CamCAN and Omega and run all analyses on held-out MOUS, establishing cross-dataset generalization. Across metrics, generations remain relatively stable over long rollouts and are closer to the correct continuation than swapped controls. Code available at: https://github.com/ricsinaruto/brain-gen.