Title: Analyzing biological and artificial neural networks: challenges with opportunities for synergy?,
Abstract: Deep neural networks (DNNs) transform stimuli across multiple processing
stages to produce representations that can be used to solve complex tasks, such
as object recognition in images. However, a full understanding of how they
achieve this remains elusive. The complexity of biological neural networks
substantially exceeds the complexity of DNNs, making it even more challenging
to understand the representations that they learn. Thus, both machine learning
and computational neuroscience are faced with a shared challenge: how can we
analyze their representations in order to understand how they solve complex
tasks?
We review how data-analysis concepts and techniques developed by
computational neuroscientists can be useful for analyzing representations in
DNNs, and in turn, how recently developed techniques for analysis of DNNs can
be useful for understanding representations in biological neural networks. We
explore opportunities for synergy between the two fields, such as the use of
DNNs as in-silico model systems for neuroscience, and how this synergy can lead
to new hypotheses about the operating principles of biological neural networks.