The Lifecycle Principle: Stabilizing Dynamic Neural Networks with State Memory

Fuente: arXiv
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Autor principal: Yang, Zichuan
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Yang, Zichuan
author_facet Yang, Zichuan
contents I investigate a stronger form of regularization by deactivating neurons for extended periods, a departure from the temporary changes of methods like Dropout. However, this long-term dynamism introduces a critical challenge: severe training instability when neurons are revived with random weights. To solve this, I propose the Lifecycle (LC) principle, a regularization mechanism centered on a key innovation: state memory. Instead of re-initializing a revived neuron, my method restores its parameters to their last known effective state. This process preserves learned knowledge and avoids destructive optimization shocks. My theoretical analysis reveals that the LC principle smooths the loss landscape, guiding optimization towards flatter minima associated with better generalization. Experiments on image classification benchmarks demonstrate that my method improves generalization and robustness. Crucially, ablation studies confirm that state memory is essential for achieving these gains.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_02575
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Lifecycle Principle: Stabilizing Dynamic Neural Networks with State Memory
Yang, Zichuan
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
I investigate a stronger form of regularization by deactivating neurons for extended periods, a departure from the temporary changes of methods like Dropout. However, this long-term dynamism introduces a critical challenge: severe training instability when neurons are revived with random weights. To solve this, I propose the Lifecycle (LC) principle, a regularization mechanism centered on a key innovation: state memory. Instead of re-initializing a revived neuron, my method restores its parameters to their last known effective state. This process preserves learned knowledge and avoids destructive optimization shocks. My theoretical analysis reveals that the LC principle smooths the loss landscape, guiding optimization towards flatter minima associated with better generalization. Experiments on image classification benchmarks demonstrate that my method improves generalization and robustness. Crucially, ablation studies confirm that state memory is essential for achieving these gains.
title The Lifecycle Principle: Stabilizing Dynamic Neural Networks with State Memory
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02575