Tackling Size Generalization of Graph Neural Networks on Biological Data from a Spectral Perspective

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Li, Gaotang, Koutra, Danai, Yan, Yujun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Li, Gaotang
Koutra, Danai
Yan, Yujun
author_facet Li, Gaotang
Koutra, Danai
Yan, Yujun
contents We address the key challenge of size-induced distribution shifts in graph neural networks (GNNs) and their impact on the generalization of GNNs to larger graphs. Existing literature operates under diverse assumptions about distribution shifts, resulting in varying conclusions about the generalizability of GNNs. In contrast to prior work, we adopt a data-driven approach to identify and characterize the types of size-induced distribution shifts and explore their impact on GNN performance from a spectral standpoint, a perspective that has been largely underexplored. Leveraging the significant variance in graph sizes in real biological datasets, we analyze biological graphs and find that spectral differences, driven by subgraph patterns (e.g., average cycle length), strongly correlate with GNN performance on larger, unseen graphs. Based on these insights, we propose three model-agnostic strategies to enhance GNNs' awareness of critical subgraph patterns, identifying size-intensive attention as the most effective approach. Extensive experiments with six GNN architectures and seven model-agnostic strategies across five datasets show that our size-intensive attention strategy significantly improves graph classification on test graphs 2 to 10 times larger than the training graphs, boosting F1 scores by up to 8% over strong baselines.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_15611
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tackling Size Generalization of Graph Neural Networks on Biological Data from a Spectral Perspective
Li, Gaotang
Koutra, Danai
Yan, Yujun
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
We address the key challenge of size-induced distribution shifts in graph neural networks (GNNs) and their impact on the generalization of GNNs to larger graphs. Existing literature operates under diverse assumptions about distribution shifts, resulting in varying conclusions about the generalizability of GNNs. In contrast to prior work, we adopt a data-driven approach to identify and characterize the types of size-induced distribution shifts and explore their impact on GNN performance from a spectral standpoint, a perspective that has been largely underexplored. Leveraging the significant variance in graph sizes in real biological datasets, we analyze biological graphs and find that spectral differences, driven by subgraph patterns (e.g., average cycle length), strongly correlate with GNN performance on larger, unseen graphs. Based on these insights, we propose three model-agnostic strategies to enhance GNNs' awareness of critical subgraph patterns, identifying size-intensive attention as the most effective approach. Extensive experiments with six GNN architectures and seven model-agnostic strategies across five datasets show that our size-intensive attention strategy significantly improves graph classification on test graphs 2 to 10 times larger than the training graphs, boosting F1 scores by up to 8% over strong baselines.
title Tackling Size Generalization of Graph Neural Networks on Biological Data from a Spectral Perspective
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.15611