Latent-Space Causal Discovery from Indirect Neuroimaging Observations

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Bae, Sangyoon, Oprescu, Miruna, Park, David Keetae, Yoo, Shinjae, Cha, Jiook
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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_version_ 1866918488794202112
author Bae, Sangyoon
Oprescu, Miruna
Park, David Keetae
Yoo, Shinjae
Cha, Jiook
author_facet Bae, Sangyoon
Oprescu, Miruna
Park, David Keetae
Yoo, Shinjae
Cha, Jiook
contents Neuroimaging does not observe causal variables directly: hemodynamics and volume conduction distort signals so that statistical dependence need not reflect latent neural influence. Before estimating graphs, one must specify under what assumptions delayed directed structure can be studied from such indirect observations. We formalize a conditional setting - recoverable inversion under modality physics together with nonstationary latent dynamics - and derive an inversion-error propagation bound under explicit assumptions. Building on this framing, we propose INCAMA (INdirect CAusal MAmba): physics-aware inversion coupled with a delay-aware Mamba encoder that uses mechanism shifts as informative variation for directed graph scoring. We use controlled simulations for quantitative validation and HCP motor-task fMRI as a zero-shot external transfer check based on anatomical and task-network consistency. Across TVB simulations, INCAMA improves directed-structure recovery by 2-3x in F1 over observation-space and two-stage baselines, and on HCP motor-task fMRI it produces sparse directed estimates concentrated in canonical visuo-motor pathways.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_09034
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Latent-Space Causal Discovery from Indirect Neuroimaging Observations
Bae, Sangyoon
Oprescu, Miruna
Park, David Keetae
Yoo, Shinjae
Cha, Jiook
Neurons and Cognition
Artificial Intelligence
Neuroimaging does not observe causal variables directly: hemodynamics and volume conduction distort signals so that statistical dependence need not reflect latent neural influence. Before estimating graphs, one must specify under what assumptions delayed directed structure can be studied from such indirect observations. We formalize a conditional setting - recoverable inversion under modality physics together with nonstationary latent dynamics - and derive an inversion-error propagation bound under explicit assumptions. Building on this framing, we propose INCAMA (INdirect CAusal MAmba): physics-aware inversion coupled with a delay-aware Mamba encoder that uses mechanism shifts as informative variation for directed graph scoring. We use controlled simulations for quantitative validation and HCP motor-task fMRI as a zero-shot external transfer check based on anatomical and task-network consistency. Across TVB simulations, INCAMA improves directed-structure recovery by 2-3x in F1 over observation-space and two-stage baselines, and on HCP motor-task fMRI it produces sparse directed estimates concentrated in canonical visuo-motor pathways.
title Latent-Space Causal Discovery from Indirect Neuroimaging Observations
topic Neurons and Cognition
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.09034