Yukiyasu Kamitani is a neuroscientist reshaping one of science’s oldest boundaries. The line between experience and observation. As Professor at Kyoto University and Department Head at ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, he is leading the emerging field of brain decoding.
Kamitani joined ATR in 2004 and became Professor at Kyoto University in 2015. Since then, he has pushed the limits of how we study the brain. His early work showed that brain activity can reveal fine visual detail. That insight set off a series of breakthroughs. His team reconstructed images from neural signals. They then decoded the visual content of dreams. The work opened one of the first empirical windows into subjective experience.
More recently, his lab has combined deep neural networks with generative AI. The goal is to turn brain activity into images and sounds. Today, his methods reconstruct what people see, imagine, misperceive and hear. This work reframes the brain as a system that can externalise its internal representations.
Kamitani has also helped shape the field of NeuroAI. He studies how artificial neural networks align with the human brain. His findings challenge a common assumption. Stronger AI does not necessarily mean greater similarity to biology. Instead, he points to shared structures in how both systems represent information.
His research extends into real-world impact. His team has advanced brain–machine interfaces that allow paralysed patients to control prosthetic limbs. They have also shown how neural feedback can reduce phantom limb pain. In parallel, he collaborates with artists such as Pierre Huyghe. Together, they turn brain-decoded data into large-scale installations and a new medium for contemporary art.
As a speaker, Yukiyasu Kamitani offers more than a view of AI and neuroscience. He shows how the mind itself may become readable and what that means for how we define intelligence.
