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Multilingual Brain Decoding Reveals Shared Cortical Semantic Geometry

  • Yi Guo
  • Yong Hu
  • Michael Kwok-Po Ng
  • Shuqiang Wang
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Abstract

Human languages differ markedly in lexical and syntactic form yet can convey similar semantic content. The neural basis of this cross-language semantic commonality remains unclear. Here we developed a multilingual brain decoding framework and analysed brain recordings from 227 participants spanning Chinese, English and French. We found that cortical semantic representations exhibited consistent semantic geometry relationships across languages and individuals, revealing a shared cortical semantic geometry. Importantly, the cross-language consistency of cortical semantic geometry increased from sensorimotor to higher-order association cortex, forming a shared semantic geometry gradient closely aligned with the principal cortical functional gradient. Our work establishes generalizable multilingual brain decoding and identifies stable cortical semantic geometry as a neural basis for semantic commonality across languages.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{guo2026multilingual,
  title = {{Multilingual Brain Decoding Reveals Shared Cortical Semantic Geometry}},
  author = {Yi Guo and Yong Hu and Michael Kwok-Po Ng and Shuqiang Wang},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.26927},
  eprint = {2610.26927},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.26927},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Multilingual Brain Decoding Reveals Shared Cortical Semantic Geometry
AU  - Yi Guo
AU  - Yong Hu
AU  - Michael Kwok-Po Ng
AU  - Shuqiang Wang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/17
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.26927
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.26927
AB  - Human languages differ markedly in lexical and syntactic form yet can convey similar semantic content. The neural basis of this cross-language semantic commonality remains unclear. Here we developed a multilingual brain decoding framework and analysed brain recordings from 227 participants spanning Chinese, English and French. We found that cortical semantic representations exhibited consistent semantic geometry relationships across languages and individuals, revealing a shared cortical semantic geometry. Importantly, the cross-language consistency of cortical semantic geometry increased from sensorimotor to higher-order association cortex, forming a shared semantic geometry gradient closely aligned with the principal cortical functional gradient. Our work establishes generalizable multilingual brain decoding and identifies stable cortical semantic geometry as a neural basis for semantic commonality across languages.
ER  -