News Neuroscience Neuroscientists decoded people’s thoughts using brain scans The method captured the gist of what three people thought, but only if they wanted it to With external brain scans and a powerful computational model of language, scientists could detect the gist of stories that people heard, thought or watched. DrAfter123/Data Vision Vectors/Getty Images Plus Share this:EmailFacebookTwitterPinterestPocketRedditPrint By Laura Sanders May 1, 2023 at 11:00 am Like Dumbledore’s wand, a scan can pull long strings of stories straight out of a person’s brain — but only if that person cooperates.This “mind-reading” feat, described May 1 in Nature Neuroscience, has a long way to go before it can be used outside of sophisticated laboratories.