From Explanations to Architecture: Explainability-Driven CNN Refinement for Brain Tumor Classification in MRI

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gupta, Rajan Das, Showmick, Md Imrul Hasan, Wei, Lei, Abir, Mushfiqur Rahman, Akter, Shanjida, Rahat, Md. Yeasin, Hossen, Md. Jakir
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Gupta, Rajan Das
Showmick, Md Imrul Hasan
Wei, Lei
Abir, Mushfiqur Rahman
Akter, Shanjida
Rahat, Md. Yeasin
Hossen, Md. Jakir
author_facet Gupta, Rajan Das
Showmick, Md Imrul Hasan
Wei, Lei
Abir, Mushfiqur Rahman
Akter, Shanjida
Rahat, Md. Yeasin
Hossen, Md. Jakir
contents Recent brain tumor classification methods often report high accuracy but rely on deep, over-parameterized architectures with limited interpretability, making it difficult to determine whether predictions are driven by tumor-relevant evidence or by spurious cues such as background artifacts or normal tissue. We propose an explainable convolutional neural network (CNN) framework that enhances model transparency without sacrificing classification accuracy. This approach supports more trustworthy AI in healthcare and contributes to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being by enabling more dependable MRI-based brain tumor diagnosis and earlier detection. Rather than using explainable AI solely for post hoc visualization, we employ Grad-CAM to quantify layer-wise relevance and guide the removal of low-contribution layers, reducing unnecessary depth and parameters while encouraging attention to discriminative tumor regions. We further validate the model's decision rationale using complementary explainability methods, combining Grad-CAM for spatial localization with SHAP and LIME for attribution-based verification. Experiments on multi-class brain MRI datasets show that the proposed model achieves 98.21% accuracy on the primary dataset and 95.74% accuracy on an unseen dataset, indicating strong cross-dataset generalization. Overall, the proposed approach balances simplicity, transparency, and accuracy, supporting more trustworthy and clinically applicable brain tumor classification for improved health outcomes and non-invasive disease detection.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_09161
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle From Explanations to Architecture: Explainability-Driven CNN Refinement for Brain Tumor Classification in MRI
Gupta, Rajan Das
Showmick, Md Imrul Hasan
Wei, Lei
Abir, Mushfiqur Rahman
Akter, Shanjida
Rahat, Md. Yeasin
Hossen, Md. Jakir
Image and Video Processing
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Recent brain tumor classification methods often report high accuracy but rely on deep, over-parameterized architectures with limited interpretability, making it difficult to determine whether predictions are driven by tumor-relevant evidence or by spurious cues such as background artifacts or normal tissue. We propose an explainable convolutional neural network (CNN) framework that enhances model transparency without sacrificing classification accuracy. This approach supports more trustworthy AI in healthcare and contributes to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being by enabling more dependable MRI-based brain tumor diagnosis and earlier detection. Rather than using explainable AI solely for post hoc visualization, we employ Grad-CAM to quantify layer-wise relevance and guide the removal of low-contribution layers, reducing unnecessary depth and parameters while encouraging attention to discriminative tumor regions. We further validate the model's decision rationale using complementary explainability methods, combining Grad-CAM for spatial localization with SHAP and LIME for attribution-based verification. Experiments on multi-class brain MRI datasets show that the proposed model achieves 98.21% accuracy on the primary dataset and 95.74% accuracy on an unseen dataset, indicating strong cross-dataset generalization. Overall, the proposed approach balances simplicity, transparency, and accuracy, supporting more trustworthy and clinically applicable brain tumor classification for improved health outcomes and non-invasive disease detection.
title From Explanations to Architecture: Explainability-Driven CNN Refinement for Brain Tumor Classification in MRI
topic Image and Video Processing
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09161