Alex Huth

Also known as Alexander Huth

Alex Huth is a computational neuroscientist who uses AI models to study how the brain represents language and to decode meaning from brain activity. He trained at Caltech in Christof Koch’s lab and completed a neuroscience PhD at UC Berkeley in 2013 after studying language processing with Jack Gallant. His work helped map visual categories in 2012 and word meanings in 2016, and he received a Sloan Research Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin in 2018. In 2023, he and Jerry Tang led work on a semantic decoder that generated text from brain recordings of heard or imagined stories. Since July 2025, he is an assistant professor of neuroscience and statistics at UC Berkeley.

Now at: University of California, Berkeley
Works: 83
Citations: 6,344
h-index: 26
Badges: Founder
Bridge

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

2008

Caltech and Berkeley training

He enters UC Berkeley’s neuroscience PhD program in 2008 and studies language processing in Jack Gallant’s lab. His training at Caltech includes undergraduate study and a master’s in Computation and Neural Systems, with research on visual processing and decision-making in Christof Koch’s lab. A childhood interest in Data, the android in Star Trek: The Next Generation, draws him toward artificial intelligence and neuroscience.
2012

Mapping visual categories

In 2012, Huth leads a Neuron study that maps how the brain represents objects and actions seen in movie clips. The team uses fMRI recordings and computational models to locate responses to more than 1,700 visual categories across the cortex.
2013–2015

A doctorate and CaseForge

He earns a neuroscience PhD at UC Berkeley in 2013. In 2015, he co-founds CaseForge with James Gao and Young Park. The company makes personalized stabilizers that hold patients in place during research and clinical imaging.
April 2016

An atlas of word meanings

In April 2016, he coauthors a Nature study that creates a semantic atlas of the brain from fMRI recordings of people listening to stories from the Moth Radio Hour. The atlas maps areas that respond to words with similar meanings, using a word-embedding algorithm to relate words to one another.
June 2016

A Burroughs Wellcome award

As a neuroscience postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, he receives a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface in June 2016 for work on decoding language meaning in the brain. The award provides $500,000 over five years to support postdoctoral training and faculty service.
2018

Sloan fellow at Texas

At the University of Texas at Austin, Huth receives an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 2018. As a professor in the computer science department, he works across machine learning, computational neuroscience and natural language processing, including artificial neural network models of brain responses to language.
May 2023

Decoding stories from brain activity

In May 2023, he and Jerry Tang lead a Nature Neuroscience study on a semantic decoder that uses a transformer model to generate text from fMRI recordings of heard or imagined stories. The generated text captures the gist of the stories, and the method requires training and cooperation from each participant.
Since July 2025

Returning to Berkeley

In July 2025, he returns to UC Berkeley with joint appointments in the neuroscience and statistics departments. He is an assistant professor with the Vision Science Graduate Group. In 2026, he uses AI tools to build computational models of how the brain understands language, drawing on recordings of people listening to stories.

Career

Since 2025University of California, BerkeleyAssistant Professor of Neuroscience and Statistics
2018–2025University of Texas at AustinProfessor in Computer Science
From 2015CaseForgeCo-founder