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Main Authors: Gokcen, Evren, Jasper, Anna I., Kohn, Adam, Machens, Christian K., Yu, Byron M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.16773
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author Gokcen, Evren
Jasper, Anna I.
Kohn, Adam
Machens, Christian K.
Yu, Byron M.
author_facet Gokcen, Evren
Jasper, Anna I.
Kohn, Adam
Machens, Christian K.
Yu, Byron M.
contents Gaussian processes are now commonly used in dimensionality reduction approaches tailored to neuroscience, especially to describe changes in high-dimensional neural activity over time. As recording capabilities expand to include neuronal populations across multiple brain areas, cortical layers, and cell types, interest in extending Gaussian process factor models to characterize multi-population interactions has grown. However, the cubic runtime scaling of current methods with the length of experimental trials and the number of recorded populations (groups) precludes their application to large-scale multi-population recordings. Here, we improve this scaling from cubic to linear in both trial length and group number. We present two approximate approaches to fitting multi-group Gaussian process factor models based on (1) inducing variables and (2) the frequency domain. Empirically, both methods achieved orders of magnitude speed-up with minimal impact on statistical performance, in simulation and on neural recordings of hundreds of neurons across three brain areas. The frequency domain approach, in particular, consistently provided the greatest runtime benefits with the fewest trade-offs in statistical performance. We further characterize the estimation biases introduced by the frequency domain approach and demonstrate effective strategies to mitigate them. This work enables a powerful class of analysis techniques to keep pace with the growing scale of multi-population recordings, opening new avenues for exploring brain function.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_16773
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fast Multi-Group Gaussian Process Factor Models
Gokcen, Evren
Jasper, Anna I.
Kohn, Adam
Machens, Christian K.
Yu, Byron M.
Machine Learning
Signal Processing
Neurons and Cognition
Gaussian processes are now commonly used in dimensionality reduction approaches tailored to neuroscience, especially to describe changes in high-dimensional neural activity over time. As recording capabilities expand to include neuronal populations across multiple brain areas, cortical layers, and cell types, interest in extending Gaussian process factor models to characterize multi-population interactions has grown. However, the cubic runtime scaling of current methods with the length of experimental trials and the number of recorded populations (groups) precludes their application to large-scale multi-population recordings. Here, we improve this scaling from cubic to linear in both trial length and group number. We present two approximate approaches to fitting multi-group Gaussian process factor models based on (1) inducing variables and (2) the frequency domain. Empirically, both methods achieved orders of magnitude speed-up with minimal impact on statistical performance, in simulation and on neural recordings of hundreds of neurons across three brain areas. The frequency domain approach, in particular, consistently provided the greatest runtime benefits with the fewest trade-offs in statistical performance. We further characterize the estimation biases introduced by the frequency domain approach and demonstrate effective strategies to mitigate them. This work enables a powerful class of analysis techniques to keep pace with the growing scale of multi-population recordings, opening new avenues for exploring brain function.
title Fast Multi-Group Gaussian Process Factor Models
topic Machine Learning
Signal Processing
Neurons and Cognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.16773