Distinct mitochondrial phenotypes align with visual and semantic representations across human cortex

<jats:p>How cellular energetics relates to the information represented by human cortex is unknown. Using 7T fMRI during natural-scene viewing, image-to-brain encoding frameworks, spatial-autocorrelation-preserving inference and postmortem molecular atlases, we separated cortical variance uniquely attributable to visual versus semantic features. Visual-specific variance aligned negatively with mitochondrial density and respiratory capacity, whereas semantic-specific variance aligned positively with mitochondrial density; convergent transcriptomic enrichment linked these representational axes to opposing mitochondrial and cellular programs.</jats:p>