Meta-learning In-Context Enables Training-Free Cross Subject Brain Decoding

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2604.08537v1
• Date: Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:59:32 GMT
• Title: Meta-learning In-Context Enables Training-Free Cross Subject Brain Decoding
• Abstract summary: We introduce a meta-optimized approach for semantic visual decoding from fMRI.<n>Our approach is explicitly optimized for in-context learning of the new subject's encoding model.<n>We demonstrate strong cross-subject and cross-scanner generalization across diverse visual backbones without retraining or fine-tuning.
• Score: 19.258438045449846
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Visual decoding from brain signals is a key challenge at the intersection of computer vision and neuroscience, requiring methods that bridge neural representations and computational models of vision. A field-wide goal is to achieve generalizable, cross-subject models. A major obstacle towards this goal is the substantial variability in neural representations across individuals, which has so far required training bespoke models or fine-tuning separately for each subject. To address this challenge, we introduce a meta-optimized approach for semantic visual decoding from fMRI that generalizes to novel subjects without any fine-tuning. By simply conditioning on a small set of image-brain activation examples from the new individual, our model rapidly infers their unique neural encoding patterns to facilitate robust and efficient visual decoding. Our approach is explicitly optimized for in-context learning of the new subject's encoding model and performs decoding by hierarchical inference, inverting the encoder. First, for multiple brain regions, we estimate the per-voxel visual response encoder parameters by constructing a context over multiple stimuli and responses. Second, we construct a context consisting of encoder parameters and response values over multiple voxels to perform aggregated functional inversion. We demonstrate strong cross-subject and cross-scanner generalization across diverse visual backbones without retraining or fine-tuning. Moreover, our approach requires neither anatomical alignment nor stimulus overlap. This work is a critical step towards a generalizable foundation model for non-invasive brain decoding.

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