Artificial Neural Networks

Torsten Reil
torsten.reil@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Outline
• What are Neural Networks?
• Biological Neural Networks
• ANN – The basics
• Feed forward net
• Training
• Example – Voice recognition
• Applications – Feed forward nets
• Recurrency
• Elman nets
• Hopfield nets
• Central Pattern Generators
• Conclusion
What are Neural Networks?

• Models of the brain and nervous system

• Highly parallel
– Process information much more like the brain than a serial
computer
• Learning

• Very simple principles

• Very complex behaviours

• Applications
– As powerful problem solvers
– As biological models
Biological Neural Nets

• Pigeons as art experts (Watanabe et al. 1995)

– Experiment:
• Pigeon in Skinner box
• Present paintings of two different artists (e.g. Chagall / Van
Gogh)
• Reward for pecking when presented a particular artist (e.g. Van
Gogh)
• Pigeons were able to discriminate between Van Gogh
and Chagall with 95% accuracy (when presented with
pictures they had been trained on)

• Discrimination still 85% successful for previously

unseen paintings of the artists

• Pigeons do not simply memorise the pictures

• They can extract and recognise patterns (the ‘style’)
• They generalise from the already seen to make
predictions

• This is what neural networks (biological and artificial)

are good at (unlike conventional computer)
ANNs – The basics

• ANNs incorporate the two fundamental components

of biological neural nets:

1. Neurones (nodes)
2. Synapses (weights)
• Neurone vs. Node
• Structure of a node:

• Squashing function limits node output:

• Synapse vs. weight
 Feed-forward nets

• Information flow is unidirectional

• Data is presented to Input layer
• Passed on to Hidden Layer
• Passed on to Output layer

• Information is distributed

• Information processing is parallel

Internal representation (interpretation) of data

• Feeding data through the net:

(1  0.25) + (0.5  (-1.5)) = 0.25 + (-0.75) = - 0.5

1
Squashing:  0.3775
1 e 0.5
• Data is presented to the network in the form of
activations in the input layer

• Examples
– Pixel intensity (for pictures)
– Molecule concentrations (for artificial nose)
– Share prices (for stock market prediction)

• Data usually requires preprocessing

– Analogous to senses in biology

• How to represent more abstract data, e.g. a name?

– Choose a pattern, e.g.
• 0-0-1 for “Chris”
• 0-1-0 for “Becky”
• Weight settings determine the behaviour of a network

 How can we find the right weights?

Training the Network - Learning

• Backpropagation
– Requires training set (input / output pairs)
– Starts with small random weights
– Error is used to adjust weights (supervised learning)
 Gradient descent on error landscape
• Advantages
– It works!
– Relatively fast

• Downsides
– Requires a training set
– Can be slow
– Probably not biologically realistic

• Alternatives to Backpropagation
– Hebbian learning
• Not successful in feed-forward nets
– Reinforcement learning
• Only limited success
– Artificial evolution
• More general, but can be even slower than backprop
Example: Voice Recognition

• Task: Learn to discriminate between two different

voices saying “Hello”

• Data
– Sources
• Steve Simpson
• David Raubenheimer
– Format
• Frequency distribution (60 bins)
• Analogy: cochlea
• Network architecture
– Feed forward network
• 60 input (one for each frequency bin)
• 6 hidden
• 2 output (0-1 for “Steve”, 1-0 for “David”)
• Presenting the data
Steve

David
• Presenting the data (untrained network)
Steve

0.43

0.26

David

0.73

0.55
• Calculate error
Steve

0.43 – 0 = 0.43

0.26 –1 = 0.74

David

0.73 – 1 = 0.27

0.55 – 0 = 0.55
• Backprop error and adjust weights
Steve

0.43 – 0 = 0.43

0.26 – 1 = 0.74

1.17

David

0.73 – 1 = 0.27

0.55 – 0 = 0.55

0.82
• Repeat process (sweep) for all training pairs
– Present data
– Calculate error
– Backpropagate error
– Adjust weights

• Repeat process multiple times

• Presenting the data (trained network)
Steve

0.01

0.99

David

0.99

0.01
• Results – Voice Recognition

– Performance of trained network

• Discrimination accuracy between known “Hello”s

– 100%

• Discrimination accuracy between new “Hello”’s

– 100%

• Demo
• Results – Voice Recognition (ctnd.)

– Network has learnt to generalise from original data

– Networks with different weight settings can have same

functionality

– Trained networks ‘concentrate’ on lower frequencies

– Network is robust against non-functioning nodes

Applications of Feed-forward nets
– Pattern recognition
• Character recognition
• Face Recognition

– Sonar mine/rock recognition (Gorman & Sejnowksi, 1988)

– Navigation of a car (Pomerleau, 1989)

– Stock-market prediction

– Pronunciation (NETtalk)
(Sejnowksi & Rosenberg, 1987)
Cluster analysis of hidden layer
FFNs as Biological Modelling Tools

• Signalling / Sexual Selection

– Enquist & Arak (1994)
• Preference for symmetry not selection for ‘good genes’, but
instead arises through the need to recognise objects
irrespective of their orientation
– Johnstone (1994)
• Exaggerated, symmetric ornaments facilitate mate recognition

(but see Dawkins & Guilford, 1995)

Recurrent Networks

• Feed forward networks:

– Information only flows one way
– One input pattern produces one output
– No sense of time (or memory of previous state)

• Recurrency
– Nodes connect back to other nodes or themselves
– Information flow is multidirectional
– Sense of time and memory of previous state(s)

• Biological nervous systems show high levels of

recurrency (but feed-forward structures exists too)
Elman Nets

• Elman nets are feed forward networks with partial

recurrency

• Unlike feed forward nets, Elman nets have a memory

or sense of time
Classic experiment on language acquisition and
processing (Elman, 1990)

• Task
– Elman net to predict successive words in sentences.

• Data
– Suite of sentences, e.g.
• “The boy catches the ball.”
• “The girl eats an apple.”
– Words are input one at a time

• Representation
– Binary representation for each word, e.g.
• 0-1-0-0-0 for “girl”

• Training method
– Backpropagation
• Internal representation of words
Hopfield Networks
• Sub-type of recurrent neural nets
– Fully recurrent
– Weights are symmetric
– Nodes can only be on or off
– Random updating

• Learning: Hebb rule (cells that fire together wire

together)
– Biological equivalent to LTP and LTD

• Can recall a memory, if presented with a

corrupt or incomplete version

 auto-associative or
content-addressable memory
Task: store images with resolution of 20x20 pixels
 Hopfield net with 400 nodes

Memorise:
1. Present image
2. Apply Hebb rule (cells that fire together, wire together)
• Increase weight between two nodes if both have same activity, otherwise decrease

3. Go to 1

Recall:
1. Present incomplete pattern
2. Pick random node, update
3. Go to 2 until settled

DEMO
• Memories are attractors in state space
Catastrophic forgetting

• Problem: memorising new patterns corrupts the memory of

older ones
 Old memories cannot be recalled, or spurious memories arise

• Solution: allow Hopfield net to sleep

• Two approaches (both using randomness):

– Unlearning (Hopfield, 1986)

• Recall old memories by random stimulation, but use an inverse
Hebb rule
‘Makes room’ for new memories (basins of attraction shrink)

– Pseudorehearsal (Robins, 1995)

• While learning new memories, recall old memories by random
stimulation
• Use standard Hebb rule on new and old memories
 Restructure memory
• Needs short-term + long term memory
• Mammals: hippocampus plays back new memories to neo-
cortex, which is randomly stimulated at the same time
RNNs as Central Pattern Generators

• CPGs: group of neurones creating rhythmic muscle activity for

locomotion, heart-beat etc.
• Identified in several invertebrates and vertebrates
• Hard to study

  Computer modelling
– E.g. lamprey swimming (Ijspeert et al., 1998)
• Evolution of Bipedal Walking (Reil & Husbands, 2001)

0.9

0.8

0.7
left hip lateral
activation

0.6 left hip a/p

right hip lateral
0.5
right hip a/p
0.4 left knee
right knee
0.3

0.2

0.1

0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 73 75 77

time
• CPG cycles are cyclic attractors in state space
Recap – Neural Networks
• Components – biological plausibility
– Neurone / node
– Synapse / weight

• Feed forward networks

– Unidirectional flow of information
– Good at extracting patterns, generalisation and
prediction
– Distributed representation of data
– Parallel processing of data
– Training: Backpropagation
– Not exact models, but good at demonstrating
principles

• Recurrent networks
– Multidirectional flow of information
– Memory / sense of time
– Complex temporal dynamics (e.g. CPGs)
– Various training methods (Hebbian, evolution)
– Often better biological models than FFNs
Online material:

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~quee0818