Paper ID: 2410.09674

EG-SpikeFormer: Eye-Gaze Guided Transformer on Spiking Neural Networks for Medical Image Analysis

Yi Pan, Hanqi Jiang, Junhao Chen, Yiwei Li, Huaqin Zhao, Yifan Zhou, Peng Shu, Zihao Wu, Zhengliang Liu, Dajiang Zhu, Xiang Li, Yohannes Abate, Tianming Liu

Neuromorphic computing has emerged as a promising energy-efficient alternative to traditional artificial intelligence, predominantly utilizing spiking neural networks (SNNs) implemented on neuromorphic hardware. Significant advancements have been made in SNN-based convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and Transformer architectures. However, their applications in the medical imaging domain remain underexplored. In this study, we introduce EG-SpikeFormer, an SNN architecture designed for clinical tasks that integrates eye-gaze data to guide the model's focus on diagnostically relevant regions in medical images. This approach effectively addresses shortcut learning issues commonly observed in conventional models, especially in scenarios with limited clinical data and high demands for model reliability, generalizability, and transparency. Our EG-SpikeFormer not only demonstrates superior energy efficiency and performance in medical image classification tasks but also enhances clinical relevance. By incorporating eye-gaze data, the model improves interpretability and generalization, opening new directions for the application of neuromorphic computing in healthcare.

Submitted: Oct 12, 2024