发现稀疏高协同放电是深度脉冲网络中关键信息编码方式
Rare Events, Real Signals: Functional Ensembles as Units of Computation in Deep Spiking Networks

- 基于功能连接定义神经元簇,追踪其在推理中的响应特性
- 仅在高协同放电时可靠编码类别信息,且此类事件罕见
- 适用于诊断网络信息流的细粒度分析,对对抗攻击敏感
我们通过功能连接视角分析深度脉冲神经网络(SNN),引入一种受神经科学启发的框架。基于与前一层神经元显著统计相关性的首阶功能连接(1FC)组,追踪其在不同条件下的响应。结果显示,生物皮层中的功能连接规律在脉冲残差网络中得以保留:1FC簇的联合放电可稳定预测下游响应,呈类ReLU输入输出关系,增益随簇大小系统性变化。仅有高1FC协同放电事件能可靠编码类别信息,而这些事件本身发生频率低,表明有效表示集中于稀疏但高度协调的活动模式。在均匀噪声或对抗扰动下,早期和中间层的响应被破坏,实现对特定节点与路径的高分辨率探测。功能连接结构由学习塑造,权重置换会使其瓦解。这确立了1FC簇作为输入编码与信息传递的功能基础,对设计精细诊断具有潜在价值。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We investigate how internal representations emerge across hierarchical processing systems by introducing a neuroscience-inspired framework for analyzing deep spiking neural networks (SNN) through the lens of functional connectivity. Drawing on concepts from systems neuroscience and information theory, we form the first-order functionally-connected (1FC) group of a neuron based on its statistically significant pairwise correlations with neurons from the previous layer of a trained SNN architecture. We then track its response properties during inference under various conditions. Our analysis shows that several principles of functional connectivity previously observed in biological cortex are preserved in spiking ResNet architectures. These 1FC ensembles display interesting properties: their aggregate cofiring reliably predicts downstream neuronal responses through a robust, ReLU-like input-output relationship, whose gain scales systematically with ensemble size. Reliable encoding of the presented class emerges only during high 1FC cofiring events, which themselves occur infrequently, indicating that informative representations are concentrated in rare but highly coordinated activity patterns. Under uniform random noise or adversarial perturbations, these response profiles are disrupted, particularly in early and intermediate layers. This enables a targeted high-resolution interrogation at specific nodes and pathways. We showed that the functional connectivity structure is shaped by learning and this structure breaks under weight permutation. These establish 1FC ensembles as a functionally meaningful substrate for input encoding and information transfer, with potential implications in designing targeted fine-grained diagnostics on the information flow.
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