English

Switched linear projections for neural network interpretability

Machine Learning 2020-02-10 v3 Machine Learning

Abstract

We introduce switched linear projections for expressing the activity of a neuron in a deep neural network in terms of a single linear projection in the input space. The method works by isolating the active subnetwork, a series of linear transformations, that determine the entire computation of the network for a given input instance. With these projections we can decompose activity in any hidden layer into patterns detected in a given input instance. We also propose that in ReLU networks it is instructive and meaningful to examine patterns that deactivate the neurons in a hidden layer, something that is implicitly ignored by the existing interpretability methods tracking solely the active aspect of the network's computation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.11275,
  title  = {Switched linear projections for neural network interpretability},
  author = {Lech Szymanski and Brendan McCane and Craig Atkinson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.11275},
  year   = {2020}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T11:25:02.736Z