Recently, growth in our understanding of the computations performed in both biological and artificial neural networks has largely been driven by either low-level mechanistic studies or global normative approaches. However, concrete methodologies for bridging the gap between these levels of abstraction remain elusive. In this work, we investigate the internal mechanisms of neural networks through the lens of neural population geometry, aiming to provide understanding at an intermediate level of abstraction, as a way to bridge that gap. Utilizing manifold capacity theory (MCT) from statistical physics and manifold alignment analysis (MAA) from high-dimensional statistics, we probe the underlying organization of task-dependent manifolds in deep neural networks and macaque neural recordings. Specifically, we quantitatively characterize how different learning objectives lead to differences in the organizational strategies of these models and demonstrate how these geometric analyses are connected to the decodability of task-relevant information. These analyses present a strong direction for bridging mechanistic and normative theories in neural networks through neural population geometry, potentially opening up many future research avenues in both machine learning and neuroscience.

通过神经群体几何的角度研究神经网络的内部机制，利用统计物理学中的流形容量理论和高维统计学中的流形对齐分析，定量表征深度神经网络和猕猴神经记录中不同学习目标导致的组织策略差异，并展示这些几何分析与任务相关信息的解码能力之间的联系。这些分析为在神经网络中桥接机制和规范性理论提供了一个重要方向，可能在机器学习和神经科学中开辟了许多未来的研究途径。

使用任务相关的神经流形研究生物和人工神经网络