EEG can retrieve a category better than it can reconstruct a picture.
Recent systems align brain signals with image embeddings, then use a pretrained generator to supply visual detail. The image is not a literal readout of the EEG.
On a 200-way retrieval task, the established UBP reference reports 50.9% top-1 with repeated trials averaged.
MB2L reports 80.5% top-1 under averaged-trial evaluation; it is an unreplicated 2026 preprint without released code.
Performance falls substantially without averaging. A separate report gives about 14.0% top-1, rising to 19.8% with a denoiser.
Evidence supports small closed-set categories and recall gist, not reconstruction of a specific imagined or remembered scene.
Percent correct; repeated trials are averaged in these benchmark headline figures. Orange marks the unreplicated preprint. Chance is 0.5% for 200 classes.
Selected sources and benchmark material:
NICE-GA ATM-S UBP MB2L preprint Benchmark leakage auditFull review, methods, legal analysis, and limits Source notes