Neuroevolution gives rise to more focused information transfer compared to backpropagation in recurrent neural networks

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are one of the most promising tools in the quest to develop general artificial intelligence. Their design was inspired by how neurons in natural brains connect and process, the only other substrate to harbor intelligence. Compared to biological brains that are sparsely connected and that form sparsely distributed representations, ANNs instead process information by connecting all nodes of one layer to all nodes of the next. In addition, modern ANNs are trained with backpropagation, while their natural counterparts have been optimized by natural evolution over eons. We study whether the training method influences how information propagates through the brain by measuring the transfer entropy, that is, the information that is transferred from one group of neurons to another. We find that while the distribution of connection weights in optimized networks is largely unaffected by the training method, neuroevolution leads to networks in which information transfer is significantly more focused on small groups of neurons (compared to those trained by backpropagation) while also being more robust to perturbations of the weights. We conclude that the specific attributes of a training method (local vs. global) can significantly affect how information is processed and relayed through the brain, even when the overall performance is similar.

Automated summary

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are a promising tool for developing general artificial intelligence. This study investigates the impact of training methods on information propagation in the brain. The research finds that neuroevolution training leads to more focused information transfer in small groups of neurons and greater robustness to weight perturbations compared to backpropagation training.