Cognitive neuroscientists have long debated about whether people have visual-like "pictures in the brain" that we activate when we think of them, or whether representations are more semantically organized in sets of features. So, for example, if asked to think of a blond person, will someone conjure in their "mind's eye," a typical blond person such as Taylor Swift, or will they just target some sort of blondness feature?

 

To help tease out this process, some cognitive neuroscientists are now collaborating with computer scientists, using machine learning paired with EEG measurements to map mental representations. In a new paper in Science Reports, Lauri Kangassalo and colleagues at the University of Helsinki used such a technique to computer-generate faces based on the intentions of people thinking about certain facial features. Read our new Q&A with Michiel Spapé, a co-author on the paper.