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. 2025 Jan 17:13:e18795.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.18795. eCollection 2025.

The role of fMRI in the mind decoding process in adults: a systematic review

Sahal Alotaibi  1 , Maher Mohammed Alotaibi  1 , Faisal Saleh Alghamdi  1 , Mishaal Abdullah Alshehri  1 , Khaled Majed Bamusa  1 , Ziyad Faiz Almalki  1 , Sultan Alamri  1 , Ahmad Joman Alghamdi  1 , Mohammed Alhazmi  2 , Hamid Osman  1 , Mayeen U Khandaker  3   4   5
Affiliations

The role of fMRI in the mind decoding process in adults: a systematic review

Sahal Alotaibi et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Background: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revolutionized our understanding of brain activity by non-invasively detecting changes in blood oxygen levels. This review explores how fMRI is used to study mind-reading processes in adults.

Methodology: A systematic search was conducted across Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Studies were selected based on strict inclusion and exclusion criteria: peer-reviewed; published between 2000 and 2024 (in English); focused on adults; investigated mind-reading (mental state decoding, brain-computer interfaces) or related processes; and employed various mind-reading techniques (pattern classification, multivariate analysis, decoding algorithms).

Results: This review highlights the critical role of fMRI in uncovering the neural mechanisms of mind-reading. Key brain regions involved include the superior temporal sulcus (STS), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and temporoparietal junction (TPJ), all crucial for mentalizing (understanding others' mental states).

Conclusions: This review emphasizes the importance of fMRI in advancing our knowledge of how the brain interprets and processes mental states. It offers valuable insights into the current state of mind-reading research in adults and paves the way for future exploration in this field.

Keywords: Adults; Brain activity; Mind-reading; Systematic review; fMRI.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. PRISMA flow chart for the selection process.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Significant (p < 0.05, FWE) fMRI signal increases in left inferior frontal gyru, right cerebellum, and left superior parietal lobule (Brodmann area 7) for the speech sound task (Alotaibi et al., 2023).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Global fMRI activation (PFWE < 0.05 cluster level) for the voluntary and involuntary eye movements (Aloufi, Rowe & Meyer, 2021).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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