arXiv:2607.21941cs.LGcs.HC2026-07

可视化分子图神经网络的潜在空间演化,帮助化学家理解模型如何组织化学信息。

LatentFlow: Visual Analytics for Latent Space Analysis in Molecular Graph Neural Networks

论文配图:LatentFlow: Visual Analytics for Latent Space Analysis in Molecular Graph Neural Networks
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 用改进的桑基图追踪嵌入聚类在各层和不同训练状态下的变化
  • 识别出反映化学关系的分子模式,揭示潜空间演化规律
  • 支持领域知识对比,适合化学与材料科学领域的模型可解释性研究

化学家和材料科学家越来越多地使用图神经网络(GNN)等机器学习模型预测分子性质及反应结果。除了预测性能外,理解模型内部潜在空间(即分子嵌入)如何组织化学信息至关重要。分析潜在空间有助于诊断模型行为,并评估学习到的嵌入是否反映有意义的化学关系。然而,现有方法对跨层、跨模型状态(如训练轮次、模型配置、输入数据)的潜在空间分析支持有限,难以理解其演化过程或与化学概念的关联。我们提出LatentFlow,一个与领域专家合作开发的视觉分析系统,用于分析分子GNN中的潜在空间。LatentFlow将嵌入分组为聚类,通过改进的桑基图追踪这些聚类在不同层和模型状态下的变化;为辅助解释,系统将聚类与代表性分子及其共享子结构关联,并允许科学家引入自身领域知识进行对比。通过两个案例研究验证,结果表明LatentFlow能帮助科学家理解潜在空间演化、发现有意义的分子模式,并更好解释模型行为。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Chemists and materials scientists increasingly use machine learning models, such as graph neural networks (GNNs), to predict properties of molecules and the outcomes of their reactions. Beyond predictive performance, understanding how these models organize chemical information internally in their latent spaces, i.e., the embeddings of the molecules, is critical. Analyzing latent spaces helps diagnose model behavior and assess whether the learned embeddings are organized in ways that reflect meaningful chemical relationships. Unfortunately, existing methods provide limited support for analyzing latent spaces across layers and across different model states (e.g., training epochs, model configurations, and input data), making it difficult to understand how these latent spaces evolve throughout a model or relate to chemical concepts. We present LatentFlow, a visual analytics system developed in collaboration with a domain expert for analyzing latent spaces in molecular GNNs. LatentFlow groups embeddings into clusters and supports exploration of latent spaces by tracking how these clusters change across layers and model states using a modified Sankey diagram. To support interpretation, LatentFlow links these clusters to representative molecules and their shared substructures, and it allows scientists to introduce their own domain knowledge and compare it with the patterns found in the latent spaces. We evaluate LatentFlow through two case studies. The results show that LatentFlow helps scientists understand how latent spaces evolve, identify meaningful molecular patterns, and better interpret model behavior.

分子生成图神经网络可解释性可视化分析

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