SynBrain: Enhancing Visual-to-fMRI Synthesis via Probabilistic Representation Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Mai, Weijian, Wu, Jiamin, Zhu, Yu, Yao, Zhouheng, Zhou, Dongzhan, Luo, Andrew F., Zheng, Qihao, Ouyang, Wanli, Song, Chunfeng
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Mai, Weijian
Wu, Jiamin
Zhu, Yu
Yao, Zhouheng
Zhou, Dongzhan
Luo, Andrew F.
Zheng, Qihao
Ouyang, Wanli
Song, Chunfeng
author_facet Mai, Weijian
Wu, Jiamin
Zhu, Yu
Yao, Zhouheng
Zhou, Dongzhan
Luo, Andrew F.
Zheng, Qihao
Ouyang, Wanli
Song, Chunfeng
contents Deciphering how visual stimuli are transformed into cortical responses is a fundamental challenge in computational neuroscience. This visual-to-neural mapping is inherently a one-to-many relationship, as identical visual inputs reliably evoke variable hemodynamic responses across trials, contexts, and subjects. However, existing deterministic methods struggle to simultaneously model this biological variability while capturing the underlying functional consistency that encodes stimulus information. To address these limitations, we propose SynBrain, a generative framework that simulates the transformation from visual semantics to neural responses in a probabilistic and biologically interpretable manner. SynBrain introduces two key components: (i) BrainVAE models neural representations as continuous probability distributions via probabilistic learning while maintaining functional consistency through visual semantic constraints; (ii) A Semantic-to-Neural Mapper acts as a semantic transmission pathway, projecting visual semantics into the neural response manifold to facilitate high-fidelity fMRI synthesis. Experimental results demonstrate that SynBrain surpasses state-of-the-art methods in subject-specific visual-to-fMRI encoding performance. Furthermore, SynBrain adapts efficiently to new subjects with few-shot data and synthesizes high-quality fMRI signals that are effective in improving data-limited fMRI-to-image decoding performance. Beyond that, SynBrain reveals functional consistency across trials and subjects, with synthesized signals capturing interpretable patterns shaped by biological neural variability. Our code is available at https://github.com/MichaelMaiii/SynBrain.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_10298
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SynBrain: Enhancing Visual-to-fMRI Synthesis via Probabilistic Representation Learning
Mai, Weijian
Wu, Jiamin
Zhu, Yu
Yao, Zhouheng
Zhou, Dongzhan
Luo, Andrew F.
Zheng, Qihao
Ouyang, Wanli
Song, Chunfeng
Machine Learning
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Image and Video Processing
Deciphering how visual stimuli are transformed into cortical responses is a fundamental challenge in computational neuroscience. This visual-to-neural mapping is inherently a one-to-many relationship, as identical visual inputs reliably evoke variable hemodynamic responses across trials, contexts, and subjects. However, existing deterministic methods struggle to simultaneously model this biological variability while capturing the underlying functional consistency that encodes stimulus information. To address these limitations, we propose SynBrain, a generative framework that simulates the transformation from visual semantics to neural responses in a probabilistic and biologically interpretable manner. SynBrain introduces two key components: (i) BrainVAE models neural representations as continuous probability distributions via probabilistic learning while maintaining functional consistency through visual semantic constraints; (ii) A Semantic-to-Neural Mapper acts as a semantic transmission pathway, projecting visual semantics into the neural response manifold to facilitate high-fidelity fMRI synthesis. Experimental results demonstrate that SynBrain surpasses state-of-the-art methods in subject-specific visual-to-fMRI encoding performance. Furthermore, SynBrain adapts efficiently to new subjects with few-shot data and synthesizes high-quality fMRI signals that are effective in improving data-limited fMRI-to-image decoding performance. Beyond that, SynBrain reveals functional consistency across trials and subjects, with synthesized signals capturing interpretable patterns shaped by biological neural variability. Our code is available at https://github.com/MichaelMaiii/SynBrain.
title SynBrain: Enhancing Visual-to-fMRI Synthesis via Probabilistic Representation Learning
topic Machine Learning
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Image and Video Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10298