Related papers: Evolving Parsimonious Networks by Mixing Activatio…
This thesis is a compendium of research which brings together ideas from the fields of Complex Networks and Computational Neuroscience to address two questions regarding neural systems: 1) How the activity of neurons, via synaptic changes,…
The width of a neural network matters since increasing the width will necessarily increase the model capacity. However, the performance of a network does not improve linearly with the width and soon gets saturated. In this case, we argue…
Neural networks show a progressive increase in complexity during the time course of evolution. From diffuse nerve nets in Cnidaria to modular, hierarchical systems in macaque and humans, there is a gradual shift from simple processes…
Neuronal network dynamics depends on network structure. In this paper we study how network topology underpins the emergence of different dynamical behaviors in neuronal networks. In particular, we consider neuronal network dynamics on…
Despite broad interest in applying deep learning techniques to scientific discovery, learning interpretable formulas that accurately describe scientific data is very challenging because of the vast landscape of possible functions and the…
The training of deep neural networks is inherently a nonconvex optimization problem, yet standard approaches such as stochastic gradient descent (SGD) require simultaneous updates to all parameters, often leading to unstable convergence and…
We introduce a method that can be used to evolve the topology of a network in a way that preserves both the network's spectral as well as local structure. This method is quite versatile in the sense that it can be used to evolve a network's…
In this paper we investigate networks whose evolution is governed by the interaction of a random assembly process and an optimization process. In the first process, new nodes are added one at a time and form connections to randomly selected…
Activation functions play a key role in neural networks so it becomes fundamental to understand their advantages and disadvantages in order to achieve better performances. This paper will first introduce common types of non linear…
We study expanding circle maps interacting in a heterogeneous random network. Heterogeneity means that some nodes in the network are massively connected, while the remaining nodes are only poorly connected. We provide a probabilistic…
Recent work on mode connectivity in the loss landscape of deep neural networks has demonstrated that the locus of (sub-)optimal weight vectors lies on continuous paths. In this work, we train a neural network that serves as a hypernetwork,…
Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) extend basic Neural Networks (NNs) by using graph structures based on the relational inductive bias (homophily assumption). While GNNs have been commonly believed to outperform NNs in real-world tasks, recent…
The predictive power of neural networks often costs model interpretability. Several techniques have been developed for explaining model outputs in terms of input features; however, it is difficult to translate such interpretations into…
We consider signal transaction in a simple neuronal model featuring intrinsic noise. The presence of noise limits the precision of neural responses and impacts the quality of neural signal transduction. We assess the signal transduction…
In this paper, we propose a new scheme for modelling the diverse behavior of neurons. We introduce the conditional activation, in which a neurons activation function is dynamically modified by a control signal. We apply this method to…
The trade-offs between different mechanical properties of materials pose fundamental challenges in engineering material design, such as balancing stiffness versus toughness, weight versus energy-absorbing capacity, and among the various…
This study explores novel activation functions that enhance the ability of neural networks to manipulate data topology during training. Building on the limitations of traditional activation functions like $\mathrm{ReLU}$, we propose…
We study the evolution of networks when the creation and decay of links are based on the position of nodes in the network measured by their centrality. We show that the same network dynamics arises under various centrality measures, and…
We offer a general theoretical framework for brain and behavior that is evolutionarily and computationally plausible. The brain in our abstract model is a network of nodes and edges. Although it has some similarities to standard neural…
Neural plasticity is an important functionality of human brain, in which number of neurons and synapses can shrink or expand in response to stimuli throughout the span of life. We model this dynamic learning process as an $L_0$-norm…