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CRACKING THE SPARSE CODE: LATERAL COMPETITION FORMS ROBUST V1-LIKE REPRESENTATIONS IN CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORKS

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Date Issued:
2022
Abstract/Description:
Although state-of-the-art Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are often viewed as a model of biological object recognition, they lack many computational and architectural motifs that are postulated to contribute to robust perception in biological neural systems. For example, modern CNNs lack lateral connections, which greatly outnumber feed-forward excitatory connections in primary sensory cortical areas and mediate feature-specific competition between neighboring neurons to form robust, sparse representations of sensory stimuli for downstream tasks. In this thesis, I hypothesize that CNN layers equipped with lateral competition better approximate the response characteristics and dynamics of neurons in the mammalian primary visual cortex, leading to increased robustness under noise and/or adversarial attacks relative to current robust CNN layers. To test this hypothesis, I develop a new class of CNNs called LCANets, which simulate recurrent, feature-specific lateral competition between neighboring neurons via a sparse coding model termed the Locally Competitive Algorithm (LCA). I first perform an analysis of the response properties of LCA and show that sparse representations formed by lateral competition more accurately mirror response characteristics of primary visual cortical populations and are more useful for downstream tasks like object recognition than previous sparse CNNs, which approximate competition with winner-take-all mechanisms implemented via thresholding.
Title: CRACKING THE SPARSE CODE: LATERAL COMPETITION FORMS ROBUST V1-LIKE REPRESENTATIONS IN CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORKS.
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Name(s): Teti, Michael, author
Barenholtz, Elan, Thesis advisor
Hahn, William , Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2022
Date Issued: 2022
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 118 p.
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: Although state-of-the-art Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are often viewed as a model of biological object recognition, they lack many computational and architectural motifs that are postulated to contribute to robust perception in biological neural systems. For example, modern CNNs lack lateral connections, which greatly outnumber feed-forward excitatory connections in primary sensory cortical areas and mediate feature-specific competition between neighboring neurons to form robust, sparse representations of sensory stimuli for downstream tasks. In this thesis, I hypothesize that CNN layers equipped with lateral competition better approximate the response characteristics and dynamics of neurons in the mammalian primary visual cortex, leading to increased robustness under noise and/or adversarial attacks relative to current robust CNN layers. To test this hypothesis, I develop a new class of CNNs called LCANets, which simulate recurrent, feature-specific lateral competition between neighboring neurons via a sparse coding model termed the Locally Competitive Algorithm (LCA). I first perform an analysis of the response properties of LCA and show that sparse representations formed by lateral competition more accurately mirror response characteristics of primary visual cortical populations and are more useful for downstream tasks like object recognition than previous sparse CNNs, which approximate competition with winner-take-all mechanisms implemented via thresholding.
Identifier: FA00014050 (IID)
Degree granted: Dissertation (PhD)--Florida Atlantic University, 2022.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Includes bibliography.
Subject(s): Neural networks (Computer science)
Machine learning
Computer vision
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00014050
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.