Publications | Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

523 results (View BibTeX file of all listed publications)

2010

Temporal Kernel CCA and its Application in Multimodal Neuronal Data Analysis

Biessmann, F., Meinecke, F., Gretton, A., Rauch, A., Rainer, G., Logothetis, N., Müller, K.

Machine Learning, 79(1-2):5-27, May 2010 (article)

Abstract

Data recorded from multiple sources sometimes exhibit non-instantaneous couplings. For simple data sets, cross-correlograms may reveal the coupling dynamics. But when dealing with high-dimensional multivariate data there is no such measure as the cross-correlogram. We propose a simple algorithm based on Kernel Canonical Correlation Analysis (kCCA) that computes a multivariate temporal filter which links one data modality to another one. The filters can be used to compute a multivariate extension of the cross-correlogram, the canonical correlogram, between data sources that have different dimensionalities and temporal resolutions. The canonical correlogram reflects the coupling dynamics between the two sources. The temporal filter reveals which features in the data give rise to these couplings and when they do so. We present results from simulations and neuroscientific experiments showing that tkCCA yields easily interpretable temporal filters and correlograms. In the experiments, we simultaneously performed electrode recordings and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in primary visual cortex of the non-human primate. While electrode recordings reflect brain activity directly, fMRI provides only an indirect view of neural activity via the Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) response. Thus it is crucial for our understanding and the interpretation of fMRI signals in general to relate them to direct measures of neural activity acquired with electrodes. The results computed by tkCCA confirm recent models of the hemodynamic response to neural activity and allow for a more detailed analysis of neurovascular coupling dynamics.

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2010

ei Biessmann, F., Meinecke, F., Gretton, A., Rauch, A., Rainer, G., Logothetis, N., Müller, K. Temporal Kernel CCA and its Application in Multimodal Neuronal Data Analysis Machine Learning, 79(1-2):5-27, May 2010 (article)

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Estimating predictive stimulus features from psychophysical data: The decision image technique applied to human faces

Macke, J., Wichmann, F.

Journal of Vision, 10(5:22):1-24, May 2010 (article)

Abstract

One major challenge in the sensory sciences is to identify the stimulus features on which sensory systems base their computations, and which are predictive of a behavioral decision: they are a prerequisite for computational models of perception. We describe a technique (decision images) for extracting predictive stimulus features using logistic regression. A decision image not only defines a region of interest within a stimulus but is a quantitative template which defines a direction in stimulus space. Decision images thus enable the development of predictive models, as well as the generation of optimized stimuli for subsequent psychophysical investigations. Here we describe our method and apply it to data from a human face classification experiment. We show that decision images are able to predict human responses not only in terms of overall percent correct but also in terms of the probabilities with which individual faces are (mis-) classified by individual observers. We show that the most predictive dimension for gender categorization is neither aligned with the axis defined by the two class-means, nor with the first principal component of all faces-two hypotheses frequently entertained in the literature. Our method can be applied to a wide range of binary classification tasks in vision or other psychophysical contexts.

Web DOI [BibTex]

ei Macke, J., Wichmann, F. Estimating predictive stimulus features from psychophysical data: The decision image technique applied to human faces Journal of Vision, 10(5:22):1-24, May 2010 (article)

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Semi-supervised Learning via Generalized Maximum Entropy

Erkan, A., Altun, Y.

In JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings Volume 9: AISTATS 2010, pages: 209-216, (Editors: Teh, Y.W. , M. Titterington), JMLR, Cambridge, MA, USA, Thirteenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics , May 2010 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Various supervised inference methods can be analyzed as convex duals of the generalized maximum entropy (MaxEnt) framework. Generalized MaxEnt aims to find a distribution that maximizes an entropy function while respecting prior information represented as potential functions in miscellaneous forms of constraints and/or penalties. We extend this framework to semi-supervised learning by incorporating unlabeled data via modifications to these potential functions reflecting structural assumptions on the data geometry. The proposed approach leads to a family of discriminative semi-supervised algorithms, that are convex, scalable, inherently multi-class, easy to implement, and that can be kernelized naturally. Experimental evaluation of special cases shows the competitiveness of our methodology.

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ei Erkan, A., Altun, Y. Semi-supervised Learning via Generalized Maximum Entropy In JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings Volume 9: AISTATS 2010, pages: 209-216, (Editors: Teh, Y.W. , M. Titterington), JMLR, Cambridge, MA, USA, Thirteenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics , May 2010 (inproceedings)

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A New Algorithm for Improving the Resolution of Cryo-EM Density Maps

Hirsch, M., Schölkopf, B., Habeck, M.

In Research in Computational Molecular Biology, Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, Vol. 6044 , pages: 174-188, (Editors: B Berger), Springer, Berlin, Germany, 14th International Conference on Research in Computational Molecular Biology (RECOMB), May 2010 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) plays an increasingly prominent role in structure elucidation of macromolecular assemblies. Advances in experimental instrumentation and computational power have spawned numerous cryo-EM studies of large biomolecular complexes resulting in the reconstruction of three-dimensional density maps at intermediate and low resolution. In this resolution range, identification and interpretation of structural elements and modeling of biomolecular structure with atomic detail becomes problematic. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm that enhances the resolution of intermediate- and low-resolution density maps. Our underlying assumption is to model the low-resolution density map as a blurred and possibly noise-corrupted version of an unknown high-resolution map that we seek to recover by deconvolution. By exploiting the nonnegativity of both the high-resolution map and blur kernel we derive multiplicative updates reminiscent of those used in nonnegative matrix factorization. Our framework allows for easy incorporation of additional prior knowledge such as smoothness and sparseness, on both the sharpened density map and the blur kernel. A probabilistic formulation enables us to derive updates for the hyperparameters, therefore our approach has no parameter that needs adjustment. We apply the algorithm to simulated three-dimensional electron microscopic data. We show that our method provides better resolved density maps when compared with B-factor sharpening, especially in the presence of noise. Moreover, our method can use additional information provided by homologous structures, which helps to improve the resolution even further.

Web DOI [BibTex]

ei Hirsch, M., Schölkopf, B., Habeck, M. A New Algorithm for Improving the Resolution of Cryo-EM Density Maps In Research in Computational Molecular Biology, Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, Vol. 6044 , pages: 174-188, (Editors: B Berger), Springer, Berlin, Germany, 14th International Conference on Research in Computational Molecular Biology (RECOMB), May 2010 (inproceedings)

Web DOI [BibTex]

Movement Templates for Learning of Hitting and Batting

Kober, J., Mülling, K., Krömer, O., Lampert, C., Schölkopf, B., Peters, J.

In Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2010), pages: 853-858, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 2010 (inproceedings)

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ei Kober, J., Mülling, K., Krömer, O., Lampert, C., Schölkopf, B., Peters, J. Movement Templates for Learning of Hitting and Batting In Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2010), pages: 853-858, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 2010 (inproceedings)

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Animal detection in natural scenes: Critical features revisited

Wichmann, F., Drewes, J., Rosas, P., Gegenfurtner, K.

Journal of Vision, 10(4):1-27, April 2010 (article)

Abstract

S. J. Thorpe, D. Fize, and C. Marlot (1996) showed how rapidly observers can detect animals in images of natural scenes, but it is still unclear which image features support this rapid detection. A. B. Torralba and A. Oliva (2003) suggested that a simple image statistic based on the power spectrum allows the absence or presence of objects in natural scenes to be predicted. We tested whether human observers make use of power spectral differences between image categories when detecting animals in natural scenes. In Experiments 1 and 2 we found performance to be essentially independent of the power spectrum. Computational analysis revealed that the ease of classification correlates with the proposed spectral cue without being caused by it. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that in commercial stock photo databases a majority of animal images are pre-segmented from the background by the photographers and this pre-segmentation causes the power spectral differences between image categories and may, furthermore, help rapid animal detection. Data from a third experiment are consistent with this hypothesis. Together, our results make it exceedingly unlikely that human observers make use of power spectral differences between animal- and no-animal images during rapid animal detection. In addition, our results point to potential confounds in the commercially available “natural image” databases whose statistics may be less natural than commonly presumed.

Web DOI [BibTex]

ei Wichmann, F., Drewes, J., Rosas, P., Gegenfurtner, K. Animal detection in natural scenes: Critical features revisited Journal of Vision, 10(4):1-27, April 2010 (article)

Web DOI [BibTex]

A generative model approach for decoding in the visual event-related potential-based brain-computer interface speller

Martens, SMM., Leiva, JM.

Journal of Neural Engineering, 7(2):1-10, April 2010 (article)

Abstract

There is a strong tendency towards discriminative approaches in brain-computer interface (BCI) research. We argue that generative model-based approaches are worth pursuing and propose a simple generative model for the visual ERP-based BCI speller which incorporates prior knowledge about the brain signals. We show that the proposed generative method needs less training data to reach a given letter prediction performance than the state of the art discriminative approaches.

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ei Martens, SMM., Leiva, JM. A generative model approach for decoding in the visual event-related potential-based brain-computer interface speller Journal of Neural Engineering, 7(2):1-10, April 2010 (article)

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Hilbert Space Embeddings and Metrics on Probability Measures

Sriperumbudur, B., Gretton, A., Fukumizu, K., Schölkopf, B., Lanckriet, G.

Journal of Machine Learning Research, 11, pages: 1517-1561, April 2010 (article)

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ei Sriperumbudur, B., Gretton, A., Fukumizu, K., Schölkopf, B., Lanckriet, G. Hilbert Space Embeddings and Metrics on Probability Measures Journal of Machine Learning Research, 11, pages: 1517-1561, April 2010 (article)

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Graph Kernels

Vishwanathan, SVN., Schraudolph, NN., Kondor, R., Borgwardt, KM.

Journal of Machine Learning Research, 11, pages: 1201-1242, April 2010 (article)

Abstract

We present a unified framework to study graph kernels, special cases of which include the random walk (G{\"a}rtner et al., 2003; Borgwardt et al., 2005) and marginalized (Kashima et al., 2003, 2004; Mahét al., 2004) graph kernels. Through reduction to a Sylvester equation we improve the time complexity of kernel computation between unlabeled graphs with n vertices from O(n6) to O(n3). We find a spectral decomposition approach even more efficient when computing entire kernel matrices. For labeled graphs we develop conjugate gradient and fixed-point methods that take O(dn3) time per iteration, where d is the size of the label set. By extending the necessary linear algebra to Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces (RKHS) we obtain the same result for d-dimensional edge kernels, and O(n4) in the infinite-dimensional case; on sparse graphs these algorithms only take O(n2) time per iteration in all cases. Experiments on graphs from bioinformatics and other application domains show that these techniques can speed up computation of the kernel by an order of magnitude or more. We also show that certain rational kernels (Cortes et al., 2002, 2003, 2004) when specialized to graphs reduce to our random walk graph kernel. Finally, we relate our framework to R-convolution kernels (Haussler, 1999) and provide a kernel that is close to the optimal assignment kernel of kernel of Fr{\"o}hlich et al. (2006) yet provably positive semi-definite.

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ei Vishwanathan, SVN., Schraudolph, NN., Kondor, R., Borgwardt, KM. Graph Kernels Journal of Machine Learning Research, 11, pages: 1201-1242, April 2010 (article)

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Solving large-scale nonnegative least squares using an adaptive non-monotonic method

Sra, S., Kim, D., Dhillon, I.

24th European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2010), 24, pages: 223, April 2010 (poster)

Abstract

We present an efficient algorithm for large-scale non-negative least-squares (NNLS). We solve NNLS by extending the unconstrained quadratic optimization method of Barzilai and Borwein (BB) to handle nonnegativity constraints. Our approach is simple yet efficient. It differs from other constrained BB variants as: (i) it uses a specific subset of variables for computing BB steps; and (ii) it scales these steps adaptively to ensure convergence. We compare our method with both established convex solvers and specialized NNLS methods, and observe highly competitive empirical performance.

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ei Sra, S., Kim, D., Dhillon, I. Solving large-scale nonnegative least squares using an adaptive non-monotonic method 24th European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2010), 24, pages: 223, April 2010 (poster)

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Gene function prediction from synthetic lethality networks via ranking on demand

Lippert, C., Ghahramani, Z., Borgwardt, KM.

Bioinformatics, 26(7):912-918, April 2010 (article)

Abstract

Motivation: Synthetic lethal interactions represent pairs of genes whose individual mutations are not lethal, while the double mutation of both genes does incur lethality. Several studies have shown a correlation between functional similarity of genes and their distances in networks based on synthetic lethal interactions. However, there is a lack of algorithms for predicting gene function from synthetic lethality interaction networks. Results: In this article, we present a novel technique called kernelROD for gene function prediction from synthetic lethal interaction networks based on kernel machines. We apply our novel algorithm to Gene Ontology functional annotation prediction in yeast. Our experiments show that our method leads to improved gene function prediction compared with state-of-the-art competitors and that combining genetic and congruence networks leads to a further improvement in prediction accuracy.

Web DOI [BibTex]

ei Lippert, C., Ghahramani, Z., Borgwardt, KM. Gene function prediction from synthetic lethality networks via ranking on demand Bioinformatics, 26(7):912-918, April 2010 (article)

Web DOI [BibTex]

Sparse regression via a trust-region proximal method

Kim, D., Sra, S., Dhillon, I.

24th European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2010), 24, pages: 278, April 2010 (poster)

Abstract

We present a method for sparse regression problems. Our method is based on the nonsmooth trust-region framework that minimizes a sum of smooth convex functions and a nonsmooth convex regularizer. By employing a separable quadratic approximation to the smooth part, the method enables the use of proximity operators, which in turn allow tackling the nonsmooth part efficiently. We illustrate our method by implementing it for three important sparse regression problems. In experiments with synthetic and real-world large-scale data, our method is seen to be competitive, robust, and scalable.

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ei Kim, D., Sra, S., Dhillon, I. Sparse regression via a trust-region proximal method 24th European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2010), 24, pages: 278, April 2010 (poster)

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Machine-Learning Methods for Decoding Intentional Brain States

Hill, NJ.

Symposium "Non-Invasive Brain Computer Interfaces: Current Developments and Applications" (BIOMAG), March 2010 (talk)

Abstract

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) work by making the user perform a specific mental task, such as imagining moving body parts or performing some other covert mental activity, or attending to a particular stimulus out of an array of options, in order to encode their intention into a measurable brain signal. Signal-processing and machine-learning techniques are then used to decode the measured signal to identify the encoded mental state and hence extract the user&amp;lsquo;s initial intention. The high-noise high-dimensional nature of brain-signals make robust decoding techniques a necessity. Generally, the approach has been to use relatively simple feature extraction techniques, such as template matching and band-power estimation, coupled to simple linear classifiers. This has led to a prevailing view among applied BCI researchers that (sophisticated) machine-learning is irrelevant since it doesn&amp;lsquo;t matter what classifier you use once your features are extracted. Using examples from our own MEG and EEG experiments, I&amp;lsquo;ll demonstrate how machine-learning principles can be applied in order to improve BCI performance, if they are formulated in a domain-specific way. The result is a type of data-driven analysis that is more than just classification, and can be used to find better feature extractors.

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ei Hill, NJ. Machine-Learning Methods for Decoding Intentional Brain States Symposium "Non-Invasive Brain Computer Interfaces: Current Developments and Applications" (BIOMAG), March 2010 (talk)

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Cooperative Cuts: Graph Cuts with Submodular Edge Weights

Jegelka, S., Bilmes, J.

(189), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany, March 2010 (techreport)

Abstract

We introduce a problem we call Cooperative cut, where the goal is to find a minimum-cost graph cut but where a submodular function is used to define the cost of a subsets of edges. That means, the cost of an edge that is added to the current cut set C depends on the edges in C. This generalization of the cost in the standard min-cut problem to a submodular cost function immediately makes the problem harder. Not only do we prove NP hardness even for nonnegative submodular costs, but also show a lower bound of Omega(|V|^(1/3)) on the approximation factor for the problem. On the positive side, we propose and compare four approximation algorithms with an overall approximation factor of min { |V|/2, |C*|, O( sqrt(|E|) log |V|), |P_max|}, where C* is the optimal solution, and P_max is the longest s, t path across the cut between given s, t. We also introduce additional heuristics for the problem which have attractive properties from the perspective of practical applications and implementations in that existing fast min-cut libraries may be used as subroutines. Both our approximation algorithms, and our heuristics, appear to do well in practice.

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ei Jegelka, S., Bilmes, J. Cooperative Cuts: Graph Cuts with Submodular Edge Weights (189), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany, March 2010 (techreport)

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A toolbox for predicting G-quadruplex formation and stability

Wong, HM., Stegle, O., Rodgers, S., Huppert, J.

Journal of Nucleic Acids, 2010(564946):1-6, March 2010 (article)

Abstract

G-quadruplexes are four stranded nucleic acid structures formed around a core of guanines, arranged in squares with mutual hydrogen bonding. Many of these structures are highly thermally stable, especially in the presence of monovalent cations, such as those found under physiological conditions. Understanding of their physiological roles is expanding rapidly, and they have been implicated in regulating gene transcription and translation among other functions. We have built a community-focused website to act as a repository for the information that is now being developed. At its core, this site has a detailed database (QuadDB) of predicted G-quadruplexes in the human and other genomes, together with the predictive algorithm used to identify them. We also provide a QuadPredict server, which predicts thermal stability and acts as a repository for experimental data from all researchers. There are also a number of other data sources with computational predictions. We anticipate that the wide availability of this information will be of use both to researchers already active in this exciting field and to those who wish to investigate a particular gene hypothesis.

PDF DOI [BibTex]

ei Wong, HM., Stegle, O., Rodgers, S., Huppert, J. A toolbox for predicting G-quadruplex formation and stability Journal of Nucleic Acids, 2010(564946):1-6, March 2010 (article)

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