BrainOOD: Out-of-distribution Generalizable Brain Network Analysis

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Xu, Jiaxing, Chen, Yongqiang, Dong, Xia, Lan, Mengcheng, Huang, Tiancheng, Bian, Qingtian, Cheng, James, Ke, Yiping
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866913677807976448
author Xu, Jiaxing
Chen, Yongqiang
Dong, Xia
Lan, Mengcheng
Huang, Tiancheng
Bian, Qingtian
Cheng, James
Ke, Yiping
author_facet Xu, Jiaxing
Chen, Yongqiang
Dong, Xia
Lan, Mengcheng
Huang, Tiancheng
Bian, Qingtian
Cheng, James
Ke, Yiping
contents In neuroscience, identifying distinct patterns linked to neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Autism, is critical for early diagnosis and effective intervention. Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have shown promising in analyzing brain networks, but there are two major challenges in using GNNs: (1) distribution shifts in multi-site brain network data, leading to poor Out-of-Distribution (OOD) generalization, and (2) limited interpretability in identifying key brain regions critical to neurological disorders. Existing graph OOD methods, while effective in other domains, struggle with the unique characteristics of brain networks. To bridge these gaps, we introduce BrainOOD, a novel framework tailored for brain networks that enhances GNNs' OOD generalization and interpretability. BrainOOD framework consists of a feature selector and a structure extractor, which incorporates various auxiliary losses including an improved Graph Information Bottleneck (GIB) objective to recover causal subgraphs. By aligning structure selection across brain networks and filtering noisy features, BrainOOD offers reliable interpretations of critical brain regions. Our approach outperforms 16 existing methods and improves generalization to OOD subjects by up to 8.5%. Case studies highlight the scientific validity of the patterns extracted, which aligns with the findings in known neuroscience literature. We also propose the first OOD brain network benchmark, which provides a foundation for future research in this field. Our code is available at https://github.com/AngusMonroe/BrainOOD.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_01688
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle BrainOOD: Out-of-distribution Generalizable Brain Network Analysis
Xu, Jiaxing
Chen, Yongqiang
Dong, Xia
Lan, Mengcheng
Huang, Tiancheng
Bian, Qingtian
Cheng, James
Ke, Yiping
Machine Learning
Neurons and Cognition
In neuroscience, identifying distinct patterns linked to neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Autism, is critical for early diagnosis and effective intervention. Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have shown promising in analyzing brain networks, but there are two major challenges in using GNNs: (1) distribution shifts in multi-site brain network data, leading to poor Out-of-Distribution (OOD) generalization, and (2) limited interpretability in identifying key brain regions critical to neurological disorders. Existing graph OOD methods, while effective in other domains, struggle with the unique characteristics of brain networks. To bridge these gaps, we introduce BrainOOD, a novel framework tailored for brain networks that enhances GNNs' OOD generalization and interpretability. BrainOOD framework consists of a feature selector and a structure extractor, which incorporates various auxiliary losses including an improved Graph Information Bottleneck (GIB) objective to recover causal subgraphs. By aligning structure selection across brain networks and filtering noisy features, BrainOOD offers reliable interpretations of critical brain regions. Our approach outperforms 16 existing methods and improves generalization to OOD subjects by up to 8.5%. Case studies highlight the scientific validity of the patterns extracted, which aligns with the findings in known neuroscience literature. We also propose the first OOD brain network benchmark, which provides a foundation for future research in this field. Our code is available at https://github.com/AngusMonroe/BrainOOD.
title BrainOOD: Out-of-distribution Generalizable Brain Network Analysis
topic Machine Learning
Neurons and Cognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.01688