Thought-deciphering via hierarchical EEG-to-text alignment

Communication is important for our well-being, but it can be impaired by disabilities, such as locked-in syndrome (LIS), cerebral palsy (CP), and dysarthria. Non-invasive brain-to-text brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) offer a promising solution by providing an alternative communication pathway for people with communication disabilities. However, most recent breakthroughs have relied on large, cumbersome, and costly neuroimaging modalities, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Numerous studies have attempted decoding using the lighter and cheaper electroencephalography (EEG), but the results remain inferior compared to the other modalities. More importantly, we do not understand how these modalities are related to text at the letter, word, sentence, and higher semantic levels. Many prior studies have focused on decoding below the sentence…