SlepNet: Spectral Subgraph Representation Learning for Neural Dynamics

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Viswanath, Siddharth, Singh, Rahul, Zhang, Yanlei, Noah, J. Adam, Hirsch, Joy, Krishnaswamy, Smita
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Viswanath, Siddharth
Singh, Rahul
Zhang, Yanlei
Noah, J. Adam
Hirsch, Joy
Krishnaswamy, Smita
author_facet Viswanath, Siddharth
Singh, Rahul
Zhang, Yanlei
Noah, J. Adam
Hirsch, Joy
Krishnaswamy, Smita
contents Graph neural networks have been useful in machine learning on graph-structured data, particularly for node classification and some types of graph classification tasks. However, they have had limited use in representing patterning of signals over graphs. Patterning of signals over graphs and in subgraphs carries important information in many domains including neuroscience. Neural signals are spatiotemporally patterned, high dimensional and difficult to decode. Graph signal processing and associated GCN models utilize the graph Fourier transform and are unable to efficiently represent spatially or spectrally localized signal patterning on graphs. Wavelet transforms have shown promise here, but offer non-canonical representations and cannot be tightly confined to subgraphs. Here we propose SlepNet, a novel GCN architecture that uses Slepian bases rather than graph Fourier harmonics. In SlepNet, the Slepian harmonics optimally concentrate signal energy on specifically relevant subgraphs that are automatically learned with a mask. Thus, they can produce canonical and highly resolved representations of neural activity, focusing energy of harmonics on areas of the brain which are activated. We evaluated SlepNet across three fMRI datasets, spanning cognitive and visual tasks, and two traffic dynamics datasets, comparing its performance against conventional GNNs and graph signal processing constructs. SlepNet outperforms the baselines in all datasets. Moreover, the extracted representations of signal patterns from SlepNet offers more resolution in distinguishing between similar patterns, and thus represent brain signaling transients as informative trajectories. Here we have shown that these extracted trajectory representations can be used for other downstream untrained tasks. Thus we establish that SlepNet is useful both for prediction and representation learning in spatiotemporal data.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_16602
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SlepNet: Spectral Subgraph Representation Learning for Neural Dynamics
Viswanath, Siddharth
Singh, Rahul
Zhang, Yanlei
Noah, J. Adam
Hirsch, Joy
Krishnaswamy, Smita
Machine Learning
Graph neural networks have been useful in machine learning on graph-structured data, particularly for node classification and some types of graph classification tasks. However, they have had limited use in representing patterning of signals over graphs. Patterning of signals over graphs and in subgraphs carries important information in many domains including neuroscience. Neural signals are spatiotemporally patterned, high dimensional and difficult to decode. Graph signal processing and associated GCN models utilize the graph Fourier transform and are unable to efficiently represent spatially or spectrally localized signal patterning on graphs. Wavelet transforms have shown promise here, but offer non-canonical representations and cannot be tightly confined to subgraphs. Here we propose SlepNet, a novel GCN architecture that uses Slepian bases rather than graph Fourier harmonics. In SlepNet, the Slepian harmonics optimally concentrate signal energy on specifically relevant subgraphs that are automatically learned with a mask. Thus, they can produce canonical and highly resolved representations of neural activity, focusing energy of harmonics on areas of the brain which are activated. We evaluated SlepNet across three fMRI datasets, spanning cognitive and visual tasks, and two traffic dynamics datasets, comparing its performance against conventional GNNs and graph signal processing constructs. SlepNet outperforms the baselines in all datasets. Moreover, the extracted representations of signal patterns from SlepNet offers more resolution in distinguishing between similar patterns, and thus represent brain signaling transients as informative trajectories. Here we have shown that these extracted trajectory representations can be used for other downstream untrained tasks. Thus we establish that SlepNet is useful both for prediction and representation learning in spatiotemporal data.
title SlepNet: Spectral Subgraph Representation Learning for Neural Dynamics
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.16602