One Brain, Omni Modalities: Towards Unified Non-Invasive Brain Decoding with Large Language Models

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Authors: Changli Tang, Shurui Li, Junliang Wang, Qiyan Xiao, Zhonghao Zhai, Lei Bai, Yu Qiao, Bowen Zhou, Wen Wu, Yuanning Li, Chao Zhang
Cited by: 0

Abstract

Deciphering brain function through non-invasive recordings requires synthesizing complementary high-frequency electromagnetic (EEG/MEG) and low-frequency metabolic (fMRI) signals. However, despite their shared neural origins, extreme discrepancies have traditionally confined these modalities to isolated analysis pipelines, hindering a holistic interpretation of brain activity. To bridge this fragmentation, we introduce \textbf{NOBEL}, a \textbf{n}euro-\textbf{o}mni-modal \textbf{b}rain-\textbf{e}ncoding \textbf{l}arge language model (LLM) that unifies these heterogeneous signals within the LLM's semantic embedding space. Our architecture integrates a unified encoder for EEG and MEG with a novel dual-path strategy for fMRI, aligning non-invasive brain signals and external sensory stimuli into a shared token space, then leverages an LLM as a universal backbone. Extensive evaluations demonstrate that NOBEL serves as a robust generalist across standard single-modal tasks. We also show that the synergistic fusion of electromagnetic and metabolic signals yields higher decoding accuracy than unimodal baselines, validating the complementary nature of multiple neural modalities. Furthermore, NOBEL exhibits strong capabilities in stimulus-aware decoding, effectively interpreting visual semantics from multi-subject fMRI data on the NSD and HAD datasets while uniquely leveraging direct stimulus inputs to verify causal links between sensory signals and neural responses. NOBEL thus takes a step towards unifying non-invasive brain decoding, demonstrating the promising potential of omni-modal brain understanding.

Fields of Study & Subjects

EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces Neural dynamics and brain function Undergraduate Neuroscience Education and Research

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
25 February 2026
Language
EN
Document type
Preprint