Attention for Causal Relationship Discovery from Biological Neural Dynamics

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Lu, Ziyu, Tabassum, Anika, Kulkarni, Shruti, Mi, Lu, Kutz, J. Nathan, Shea-Brown, Eric, Lim, Seung-Hwan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Lu, Ziyu
Tabassum, Anika
Kulkarni, Shruti
Mi, Lu
Kutz, J. Nathan
Shea-Brown, Eric
Lim, Seung-Hwan
author_facet Lu, Ziyu
Tabassum, Anika
Kulkarni, Shruti
Mi, Lu
Kutz, J. Nathan
Shea-Brown, Eric
Lim, Seung-Hwan
contents This paper explores the potential of the transformer models for learning Granger causality in networks with complex nonlinear dynamics at every node, as in neurobiological and biophysical networks. Our study primarily focuses on a proof-of-concept investigation based on simulated neural dynamics, for which the ground-truth causality is known through the underlying connectivity matrix. For transformer models trained to forecast neuronal population dynamics, we show that the cross attention module effectively captures the causal relationship among neurons, with an accuracy equal or superior to that for the most popular Granger causality analysis method. While we acknowledge that real-world neurobiology data will bring further challenges, including dynamic connectivity and unobserved variability, this research offers an encouraging preliminary glimpse into the utility of the transformer model for causal representation learning in neuroscience.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_06928
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Attention for Causal Relationship Discovery from Biological Neural Dynamics
Lu, Ziyu
Tabassum, Anika
Kulkarni, Shruti
Mi, Lu
Kutz, J. Nathan
Shea-Brown, Eric
Lim, Seung-Hwan
Machine Learning
Neurons and Cognition
Methodology
This paper explores the potential of the transformer models for learning Granger causality in networks with complex nonlinear dynamics at every node, as in neurobiological and biophysical networks. Our study primarily focuses on a proof-of-concept investigation based on simulated neural dynamics, for which the ground-truth causality is known through the underlying connectivity matrix. For transformer models trained to forecast neuronal population dynamics, we show that the cross attention module effectively captures the causal relationship among neurons, with an accuracy equal or superior to that for the most popular Granger causality analysis method. While we acknowledge that real-world neurobiology data will bring further challenges, including dynamic connectivity and unobserved variability, this research offers an encouraging preliminary glimpse into the utility of the transformer model for causal representation learning in neuroscience.
title Attention for Causal Relationship Discovery from Biological Neural Dynamics
topic Machine Learning
Neurons and Cognition
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.06928