arXiv:2410.03972cs.LGcs.IT2024-10NeurIPS被引 2

量化并控制神经网络解的多样性,提升模型可解释性。

Measuring and Controlling Solution Degeneracy across Task-Trained Recurrent Neural Networks

  • 构建三层框架,从行为、动态和权重空间量化解的差异。
  • 复杂任务降低神经动态多样性,但增加权重空间差异;大网络和正则化能整体减少差异。
  • 适合研究神经机制或生物可变性的学者,指导模型设计与分析。

任务训练的循环神经网络(RNN)广泛用于建模神经系统的动态计算。尽管多个RNN在相同任务上表现相似,其内部解却可能截然不同,这种现象称为解退化。本文提出统一框架,系统量化并控制三层次解退化:行为、神经动力学和权重空间。我们对4个神经科学相关任务(翻转记忆、正弦波生成、延迟辨别、路径积分)上的3,400个RNN进行实验,系统调节任务复杂度、学习方式、网络规模和正则化。结果表明:更高任务复杂度和更强特征学习会减少神经动力学退化,但增加权重空间退化,对行为影响混合;而更大网络和结构正则化可同时降低三层次退化。这些发现验证了反变性原理,并为研究人员调控RNN解的变异性提供实践指导,以揭示共通神经机制或模拟生物系统的个体差异。本工作为任务训练的RNN提供了可量化的解退化控制框架,助力构建更可解释、更符合生物学的神经计算模型。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Task-trained recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are widely used in neuroscience and machine learning to model dynamical computations. To gain mechanistic insight into how neural systems solve tasks, prior work often reverse-engineers individual trained networks. However, different RNNs trained on the same task and achieving similar performance can exhibit strikingly different internal solutions, a phenomenon known as solution degeneracy. Here, we develop a unified framework to systematically quantify and control solution degeneracy across three levels: behavior, neural dynamics, and weight space. We apply this framework to 3,400 RNNs trained on four neuroscience-relevant tasks: flip-flop memory, sine wave generation, delayed discrimination, and path integration, while systematically varying task complexity, learning regime, network size, and regularization. We find that higher task complexity and stronger feature learning reduce degeneracy in neural dynamics but increase it in weight space, with mixed effects on behavior. In contrast, larger networks and structural regularization reduce degeneracy at all three levels. These findings empirically validate the Contravariance Principle and provide practical guidance for researchers seeking to tune the variability of RNN solutions, either to uncover shared neural mechanisms or to model the individual variability observed in biological systems. This work provides a principled framework for quantifying and controlling solution degeneracy in task-trained RNNs, offering new tools for building more interpretable and biologically grounded models of neural computation.

RNN解退化可解释性神经机制

Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。