Statistical Test for Saliency Maps of Graph Neural Networks via Selective Inference

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Nishino, Shuichi, Shiraishi, Tomohiro, Katsuoka, Teruyuki, Takeuchi, Ichiro
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Nishino, Shuichi
Shiraishi, Tomohiro
Katsuoka, Teruyuki
Takeuchi, Ichiro
author_facet Nishino, Shuichi
Shiraishi, Tomohiro
Katsuoka, Teruyuki
Takeuchi, Ichiro
contents Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have gained prominence for their ability to process graph-structured data across various domains. However, interpreting GNN decisions remains a significant challenge, leading to the adoption of saliency maps for identifying salient subgraphs composed of influential nodes and edges. Despite their utility, the reliability of GNN saliency maps has been questioned, particularly in terms of their robustness to input noise. In this study, we propose a statistical testing framework to rigorously evaluate the significance of saliency maps. Our main contribution lies in addressing the inflation of the Type I error rate caused by double-dipping of data, leveraging the framework of Selective Inference. Our method provides statistically valid $p$-values while controlling the Type I error rate, ensuring that identified salient subgraphs contain meaningful information rather than random artifacts. The method is applicable to a variety of saliency methods with piecewise linearity (e.g., Class Activation Mapping). We validate our method on synthetic and real-world datasets, demonstrating its capability in assessing the reliability of GNN interpretations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_16893
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Statistical Test for Saliency Maps of Graph Neural Networks via Selective Inference
Nishino, Shuichi
Shiraishi, Tomohiro
Katsuoka, Teruyuki
Takeuchi, Ichiro
Machine Learning
Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have gained prominence for their ability to process graph-structured data across various domains. However, interpreting GNN decisions remains a significant challenge, leading to the adoption of saliency maps for identifying salient subgraphs composed of influential nodes and edges. Despite their utility, the reliability of GNN saliency maps has been questioned, particularly in terms of their robustness to input noise. In this study, we propose a statistical testing framework to rigorously evaluate the significance of saliency maps. Our main contribution lies in addressing the inflation of the Type I error rate caused by double-dipping of data, leveraging the framework of Selective Inference. Our method provides statistically valid $p$-values while controlling the Type I error rate, ensuring that identified salient subgraphs contain meaningful information rather than random artifacts. The method is applicable to a variety of saliency methods with piecewise linearity (e.g., Class Activation Mapping). We validate our method on synthetic and real-world datasets, demonstrating its capability in assessing the reliability of GNN interpretations.
title Statistical Test for Saliency Maps of Graph Neural Networks via Selective Inference
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.16893