Closed-Form Feedback-Free Learning with Forward Projection

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Hauptverfasser: O'Shea, Robert, Rajendran, Bipin
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author O'Shea, Robert
Rajendran, Bipin
author_facet O'Shea, Robert
Rajendran, Bipin
contents State-of-the-art backpropagation-free learning methods employ local error feedback to direct iterative optimisation via gradient descent. Here, we examine the more restrictive setting where retrograde communication from neuronal outputs is unavailable for pre-synaptic weight optimisation. We propose Forward Projection (FP), a randomised closed-form training method requiring only a single forward pass over the dataset without retrograde communication. FP generates target values for pre-activation membrane potentials through randomised nonlinear projections of pre-synaptic inputs and labels. Local loss functions are optimised using closed-form regression without feedback from downstream layers. A key advantage is interpretability: membrane potentials in FP-trained networks encode information interpretable layer-wise as label predictions. Across several biomedical datasets, FP achieves generalisation comparable to gradient descent-based local learning methods while requiring only a single forward propagation step, yielding significant training speedup. In few-shot learning tasks, FP produces more generalisable models than backpropagation-optimised alternatives, with local interpretation functions successfully identifying clinically salient diagnostic features.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_16476
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Closed-Form Feedback-Free Learning with Forward Projection
O'Shea, Robert
Rajendran, Bipin
Machine Learning
68T07
State-of-the-art backpropagation-free learning methods employ local error feedback to direct iterative optimisation via gradient descent. Here, we examine the more restrictive setting where retrograde communication from neuronal outputs is unavailable for pre-synaptic weight optimisation. We propose Forward Projection (FP), a randomised closed-form training method requiring only a single forward pass over the dataset without retrograde communication. FP generates target values for pre-activation membrane potentials through randomised nonlinear projections of pre-synaptic inputs and labels. Local loss functions are optimised using closed-form regression without feedback from downstream layers. A key advantage is interpretability: membrane potentials in FP-trained networks encode information interpretable layer-wise as label predictions. Across several biomedical datasets, FP achieves generalisation comparable to gradient descent-based local learning methods while requiring only a single forward propagation step, yielding significant training speedup. In few-shot learning tasks, FP produces more generalisable models than backpropagation-optimised alternatives, with local interpretation functions successfully identifying clinically salient diagnostic features.
title Closed-Form Feedback-Free Learning with Forward Projection
topic Machine Learning
68T07
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.16476