CVSNet: A Computer Implementation for Central Visual System of The Brain

Abstract: In computer vision, different basic blocks are created around different matrix operations, and models based on different basic blocks have achieved good results. Good results achieved in vision tasks grants them rationality. However, these experimental-based models also make deep learning long criticized for principle and interpretability. Deep learning originated from the concept of neurons in neuroscience, but recent designs detached natural neural networks except for some simple concepts. In this paper, we build an artificial neural network, CVSNet, which can be seen as a computer implementation for central visual system of the brain. Each block in CVSNet represents the same vision information as that in brains. In CVSNet, blocks differs from each other and visual information flows through three independent pathways and five different blocks. Thus CVSNet is completely different from the design of all previous models, in which basic blocks are repeated to build model and information between channels is mixed at the outset. In ablation experiment, we show the information extracted by blocks in CVSNet and compare with previous networks, proving effectiveness and rationality of blocks in CVSNet from experiment side. And in the experiment of object recognition, CVSNet achieves comparable results to ConvNets, Vision Transformers and MLPs.