通过权重对齐分析模型是否真正在用临床信号,而非依赖扫描设备等干扰信息。
Weight Space Correlation Analysis: Quantifying Feature Utilization in Deep Learning Models
- 用主任务与辅助任务权重的对齐度衡量模型对特征的实际利用程度。
- 在早产预测模型中发现:权重与出生体重相关,但与扫描仪型号无关。
- 适合关注医疗模型可解释性与可信度的研究者使用。
医学影像中的深度学习模型易受捷径学习影响,依赖图像嵌入中编码的混淆元数据(如扫描仪型号)。关键问题是模型是否真正利用这些信息进行预测。本文提出权重空间相关性分析,通过测量主临床任务分类头与辅助元数据任务分类头之间的对齐程度,量化特征利用率。首先验证该方法能有效检测人为引入的捷径学习;随后应用于训练用于自发性早产(sPTB)预测的SA-SonoNet模型。分析显示,尽管嵌入中包含大量元数据信息,但sPTB分类器的权重向量与临床相关因素(如出生体重)高度相关,却与临床无关的采集因素(如扫描仪型号)解耦。该方法为验证模型可信度提供了工具,表明在无人为偏差时,临床模型仅选择性利用真实临床信号。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Deep learning models in medical imaging are susceptible to shortcut learning, relying on confounding metadata (e.g., scanner model) that is often encoded in image embeddings. The crucial question is whether the model actively utilizes this encoded information for its final prediction. We introduce Weight Space Correlation Analysis, an interpretable methodology that quantifies feature utilization by measuring the alignment between the classification heads of a primary clinical task and auxiliary metadata tasks. We first validate our method by successfully detecting artificially induced shortcut learning. We then apply it to probe the feature utilization of an SA-SonoNet model trained for Spontaneous Preterm Birth (sPTB) prediction. Our analysis confirmed that while the embeddings contain substantial metadata, the sPTB classifier's weight vectors were highly correlated with clinically relevant factors (e.g., birth weight) but decoupled from clinically irrelevant acquisition factors (e.g. scanner). Our methodology provides a tool to verify model trustworthiness, demonstrating that, in the absence of induced bias, the clinical model selectively utilizes features related to the genuine clinical signal.
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