Make Haste Slowly: A Theory of Emergent Structured Mixed Selectivity in Feature Learning ReLU Networks

ICLR 2025 Conference Submission12212 Authors

Keywords: Gated Deep Linear Networks, Feature Learning Dynamics, Structured Mixed Selectivity, ReLU Networks

TL;DR: We establish an equivalence between finite feature learning ReLU networks and Gated Deep Linear Networks to analyse the full learning dynamics of the ReLU network. We find a bias towards structured mixed selective representations on a set of tasks.

Abstract: In spite of finite dimension ReLU neural networks being a consistent factor behind recent deep learning successes, a theory of feature learning in these models remains elusive. Currently, insightful theories still rely on assumptions including the linearity of the network computations, unstructured input data and architectural constraints such as infinite width or a single hidden layer. To begin to address this gap we establish an equivalence between ReLU networks and Gated Deep Linear Networks, and use their greater tractability to derive dynamics of learning. We then consider multiple variants of a core task reminiscent of multi-task learning or contextual control which requires both feature learning and nonlinearity. We make explicit that, for these tasks, the ReLU networks possess an inductive bias towards latent representations which are *not* strictly modular or disentangled but are still highly structured and reusable between contexts. This effect is amplified with the addition of more contexts and hidden layers. Thus, we take a step towards a theory of feature learning in finite ReLU networks and shed light on how structured mixed-selective latent representations can emerge due to a bias for node-reuse and learning speed.

Primary Area: learning theory

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Submission Number: 12212