Average-Over-Time Spiking Neural Networks for Uncertainty Estimation in Regression

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sun, Tao, Bohté, Sander
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Sun, Tao
Bohté, Sander
author_facet Sun, Tao
Bohté, Sander
contents Uncertainty estimation is a standard tool to quantify the reliability of modern deep learning models, and crucial for many real-world applications. However, efficient uncertainty estimation methods for spiking neural networks, particularly for regression models, have been lacking. Here, we introduce two methods that adapt the Average-Over-Time Spiking Neural Network (AOT-SNN) framework to regression tasks, enhancing uncertainty estimation in event-driven models. The first method uses the heteroscedastic Gaussian approach, where SNNs predict both the mean and variance at each time step, thereby generating a conditional probability distribution of the target variable. The second method leverages the Regression-as-Classification (RAC) approach, reformulating regression as a classification problem to facilitate uncertainty estimation. We evaluate our approaches on both a toy dataset and several benchmark datasets, demonstrating that the proposed AOT-SNN models achieve performance comparable to or better than state-of-the-art deep neural network methods, particularly in uncertainty estimation. Our findings highlight the potential of SNNs for uncertainty estimation in regression tasks, providing an efficient and biologically inspired alternative for applications requiring both accuracy and energy efficiency.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_00278
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Average-Over-Time Spiking Neural Networks for Uncertainty Estimation in Regression
Sun, Tao
Bohté, Sander
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Uncertainty estimation is a standard tool to quantify the reliability of modern deep learning models, and crucial for many real-world applications. However, efficient uncertainty estimation methods for spiking neural networks, particularly for regression models, have been lacking. Here, we introduce two methods that adapt the Average-Over-Time Spiking Neural Network (AOT-SNN) framework to regression tasks, enhancing uncertainty estimation in event-driven models. The first method uses the heteroscedastic Gaussian approach, where SNNs predict both the mean and variance at each time step, thereby generating a conditional probability distribution of the target variable. The second method leverages the Regression-as-Classification (RAC) approach, reformulating regression as a classification problem to facilitate uncertainty estimation. We evaluate our approaches on both a toy dataset and several benchmark datasets, demonstrating that the proposed AOT-SNN models achieve performance comparable to or better than state-of-the-art deep neural network methods, particularly in uncertainty estimation. Our findings highlight the potential of SNNs for uncertainty estimation in regression tasks, providing an efficient and biologically inspired alternative for applications requiring both accuracy and energy efficiency.
title Average-Over-Time Spiking Neural Networks for Uncertainty Estimation in Regression
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.00278