{"id":"doi:10.1016/j.tics.2025.12.003","kind":"review","title":"Moving intentions from brains to machines","authors":["Beste C","Slagter HA","Herff C","Kamitani Y","Coninx S","van Wezel R","Frings C"],"author_count":7,"year":2026,"published":"2026-01-14","venue":"Trends in cognitive sciences","cited_by":3,"doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.12.003","arxiv_id":null,"nct_id":null,"source_url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.12.003","archive_url":"https://space-kitty.com/papers/doi:10.1016/j.tics.2025.12.003","updated":null,"pmid":"41539931","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":null,"pdf_url":null,"abstract":"Brain-computer interface (BCI) research has achieved remarkable technical progress but remains limited in scope, typically relying on motor and visual cortex signals in limited patient populations. We propose a paradigm shift in BCI design rooted in ideomotor theory, which conceptualizes voluntary action as driven by internally represented sensory outcomes. This underused framework offers a principled basis for next-generation BCIs that align closely with the brain's natural intentional and action-planning architecture. We suggest a more intuitive, generalizable, and scalable path by reorienting BCIs around the 'what for' of action-user goals and anticipated effects. This shift is timely and feasible, enabled by advances in neural recording and artificial intelligence-based decoding of sensory representations. It may help resolve challenges of usability and generalizability in BCI design.","abstract_license":"CC-BY (article license as recorded by Europe PMC; abstract reproduced unmodified apart from markup removal)","license":"CC-BY","is_open_access":false,"retracted":false,"peer_reviewed":null,"categories":[],"details":null,"provenance":"europepmc","attribution":"Abstract of \"Moving intentions from brains to machines\" by Beste C, Slagter HA, Herff C et al., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.12.003, used under its Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY); markup removed, otherwise unmodified.","topics":[{"slug":"brain-computer-interfaces","name":"Brain-Computer Interfaces","domain_slug":"neuroscience"}],"cited_in_dossiers":[]}