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Despite being the workhorse of deep learning, the backpropagation algorithm is no panacea. It enforces sequential layer updates, thus preventing efficient parallelization of the training process. Furthermore, its biological plausibility is…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2021-02-18 Julien Launay , Iacopo Poli , François Boniface , Florent Krzakala

Error backpropagation is a highly effective mechanism for learning high-quality hierarchical features in deep networks. Updating the features or weights in one layer, however, requires waiting for the propagation of error signals from…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2017-11-21 Hesham Mostafa , Vishwajith Ramesh , Gert Cauwenberghs

Back-propagation is a popular machine learning algorithm that uses gradient descent in training neural networks for supervised learning, but can be very slow. A number of algorithms have been developed to speed up convergence and improve…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2020-09-29 Ho Ling Li

This paper establishes risk convergence and asymptotic weight matrix alignment --- a form of implicit regularization --- of gradient flow and gradient descent when applied to deep linear networks on linearly separable data. In more detail,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-02-26 Ziwei Ji , Matus Telgarsky

Random backpropagation (RBP) is a variant of the backpropagation algorithm for training neural networks, where the transpose of the forward matrices are replaced by fixed random matrices in the calculation of the weight updates. It is…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2017-12-25 Pierre Baldi , Peter Sadowski , Zhiqin Lu

Backpropagation (BP) of errors is the backbone training algorithm for artificial neural networks (ANNs). It updates network weights through gradient descent to minimize a loss function representing the mismatch between predictions and…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-08-13 Davide Casnici , Charlotte Frenkel , Justin Dauwels

The feedback alignment (FA) algorithm offers a biologically plausible alternative to backpropagation (BP) for training neural networks yet notably fails to scale to convolutional architectures. Modifications have been proposed to address…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-05-12 Jake Lance , Larry Kieu

The backpropagation algorithm, which had been originally introduced in the 1970s, is the workhorse of learning in neural networks. This backpropagation algorithm makes use of the famous machine learning algorithm known as Gradient Descent,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-02-02 Varun Ranganathan , S. Natarajan

The Backprop algorithm for learning in neural networks utilizes two mechanisms: first, stochastic gradient descent and second, initialization with small random weights, where the latter is essential to the effectiveness of the former. We…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-05-06 Shibhansh Dohare , Richard S. Sutton , A. Rupam Mahmood

The success of gradient descent in ML and especially for learning neural networks is remarkable and robust. In the context of how the brain learns, one aspect of gradient descent that appears biologically difficult to realize (if not…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2022-04-12 Shivam Garg , Santosh S. Vempala

Backpropagation is widely used to train artificial neural networks, but its relationship to synaptic plasticity in the brain is unknown. Some biological models of backpropagation rely on feedback projections that are symmetric with…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2023-02-08 Navid Shervani-Tabar , Robert Rosenbaum

While current deep learning algorithms have been successful for a wide variety of artificial intelligence (AI) tasks, including those involving structured image data, they present deep neurophysiological conceptual issues due to their…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2023-11-07 Timothy Zee , Alexander G. Ororbia , Ankur Mali , Ifeoma Nwogu

Feedback alignment and related weight-transport-free algorithms are often proposed as biologically plausible alternatives to backpropagation, yet they are typically formulated in discrete phases with implicitly synchronized forward and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-03 Marc Gong Bacvanski , Liu Ziyin , Tomaso Poggio

Backpropagation algorithm is indispensable for the training of feedforward neural networks. It requires propagating error gradients sequentially from the output layer all the way back to the input layer. The backward locking in…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-07-24 Zhouyuan Huo , Bin Gu , Qian Yang , Heng Huang

Backpropagation is the default algorithm for training deep neural networks due to its simplicity, efficiency and high convergence rate. However, its requirements make it impossible to be implemented in a human brain. In recent years, more…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-09-01 Albert Jiménez Sanfiz , Mohamed Akrout

Several recent studies attempt to address the biological implausibility of the well-known backpropagation (BP) method. While promising methods such as feedback alignment, direct feedback alignment, and their variants like sign-concordant…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2022-05-27 Yukun Yang , Peng Li

Neural networks are commonly trained to make predictions through learning algorithms. Contrastive Hebbian learning, which is a powerful rule inspired by gradient backpropagation, is based on Hebb's rule and the contrastive divergence…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-06-21 Georgios Detorakis , Travis Bartley , Emre Neftci

Traditional backpropagation of error, though a highly successful algorithm for learning in artificial neural network models, includes features which are biologically implausible for learning in real neural circuits. An alternative called…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-06 Nasir Ahmad , Marcel A. J. van Gerven , Luca Ambrogioni

The backpropagation (BP) algorithm is often thought to be biologically implausible in the brain. One of the main reasons is that BP requires symmetric weight matrices in the feedforward and feedback pathways. To address this "weight…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-12-24 Will Xiao , Honglin Chen , Qianli Liao , Tomaso Poggio

The brain prepares for learning even before interacting with the environment, by refining and optimizing its structures through spontaneous neural activity that resembles random noise. However, the mechanism of such a process has yet to be…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-12 Jeonghwan Cheon , Sang Wan Lee , Se-Bum Paik