Set of scripts to facilitate experiments done as part of an AI/ML Msc. thesis (text) at the Math and Physics Faculty of Charles University in Prague.

Accurate models of visual system are key for understanding how our brains process visual information. In recent years, DNNs have been rapidly gaining traction in this domain. However, only few studies attempted to incorporate known anatomical properties of visual system into standard DNN architectures adapted from the general machine learning field, to improve their interpretability and performance on visual data.

In this thesis, we optimize a recent biologically inspired deep learning architecture designed for analysis of population data recorded from mammalian primary visual cortex when presented with natural images as stimuli. We reimplement this prior modeling in existing neuroscience focused deep learning framework NDN3 and assess it in terms of stability and sensitivity to hyperparameters and architecture fine-tuning. We proceed to extend the model with components of various DNN models, analysing novel combinations and techniques from classical computer vision deep learning, comparing their effectiveness against the bio-inspired components.

We were able to identify modifications that greatly increase the stability of the model while securing moderate improvement in overall performance. Furthermore, we document the importance of small hyperparameters adjustments versus architectural advantages that could facilitate further experiments with the examined architectures. All-new model components were contributed to the open-source NDN3 package.

Overall, this work grounds previous bio-inspired DNN architectures in the modern NDN3 environment, identifying optimal hyper-parametrization of the model, and thus paving path towards future development of these bio-inspired architectures.

0. Hydrate submodules: make NDN3
1. Build virtenv + deps: make env-dev (analysis dev) | make env (just script deps)
2. Activate virtenv: source ./activate
3. Work:
   • Run an experiment: e.g.: python3 experiments/experiments_3/bs4_exp3_runner.py qsub-cpu
   • Run a single experiment instance directly: e.g: python3 ./experiments/baseline/bl1.py
   • Use jupyter notebook for results analysis: jupyter notebook and navigate to ./playgrounds/

Note: If tensorflow-gpu is preferred, please update requirements.txt's first line from -r NDN3/requirements.txt to -r NDN3/requirements-gpu.txt

• Uses data from Model Constrained by Visual Hierarchy Improves Prediction of Neural Responses to Natural Scenes paper.
  • Navigate to Supporting Information.
  • Download the first supplement.
  • Unzip it to ./.

An experiment is a set of tested architectures + hyperparameters.

• Identified by {exp} name and {exp_folder} group.
  • Both are used throughout the whole system for scripts discovery, logs naming, ... .
  • {exp_folder} is used just for namespacing experiments, having two {exp}s together in one {exp_folder} versus in separate ones has no impact on their function.
  • {exp} usually in the form of bsX_expY.py: An experiment Y based on baseline X model.
• Single experiment is defined by {exp}.py script and optionally a runner {exp}_runner.py (naming can be arbitrary for runner).
• {exp}.py
  • Defines the architecture and includes all code to instantiate and train the model.
  • Usually trains the same model multiple times (see the loop) to control for random init (repetitions).
  • Sometimes accepts hyperparameters as command line arguments to support testing multiple variations as part of one experiment.
  • To test multiple variations it should be called multiple times with different command line arguments. Each execution with a particular set is called a run.
  • Also defines {name} that shows on logs file paths, etc. Should serve as an human interpretable identifier of both the exp and also the particular run (i.e. encode passed args).
• {exp}_runner.py
  • Runs an experiment through executing the {exp}.py script with all args combinations we want to test. I.e. executes all runs of an experiment.
  • Executes individual runs through environment specific runners. Runs usually work in parallel (e.g. as individual jobs).

In the thesis text repetitions are called runs, and runs are simply experiment instances. The difference in naming is an unfortunate relict of an attempt to have understandable text but also backwards compatible scripts.

• ./Data/region{x}: Used dataset.
• ./experiments/: Experiments scripts.
  • {exp_folder}/{exp}.py: A script defining the architecture of an experiment.
  • {exp_folder}/{exp}_runner.py: A runner script defining which runs (with what parameters) of respective experiment are to be tested.
  • readme.txt: Mapping between experiments as described in the thesis text and their implementation in this repository.
• ./NDN3/: A git submodule with the used neuroscience focused ML framework.
• ./playgrounds/: Jupyter notebooks containing analysis / figures generation.
• ./training_data/: Data produced by running the experiments.
  • job_logs/{exp_folder}/{exp}/(e|o)_{repetition}.log: Standard output and standard error of experiment runs invoked through runners.
  • logs/{exp_folder}x{run}/{name}__{repetition}/: Tensorflow summaries gathered during training.
  • models/{exp_folder}x{run}/{name}__{repetition}.ndnmod: NDN3 models saved at the end of training.
  • experiments.txt: A list of finished {exp_folder}/{exp}/{name}s.
• ./utils/: Various helper utilities.
  • analysis_*: Analysis utilities.
  • runners.py: Experiments execution pipeline.

Note: This is not a software engineering thesis and so the focus was not on creating a properly extensible and maintainable experiments pipeline.

The ./NDN3 submodule tracks a messyDevelop branch of my own fork of the framework. It corresponds to main repo's master with a few additional patches that have not yet been or will never be merged upstream. The patches are simple and so it should be relatively easy to keep the fork up-to-date and regularly merge in upstream changes.

• Added correlation tracking during training to TF summaries (PR #16, reasons for it not being merged).
• Proper last partial batch handling, partial batches are ignored in upstream (not merged because it breaks certain data pipelines).
• (Possibly) Any other unmerged PRs on the NeuroTheoryUMD's master.