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#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
=============================================================================
COMPREHENSIVE ACTIVATION FUNCTION TUTORIAL
=============================================================================
This script provides both THEORETICAL explanations and EMPIRICAL experiments
to understand how different activation functions affect:
1. GRADIENT FLOW: Do gradients vanish or explode?
2. SPARSITY & DEAD NEURONS: How easily do units turn on/off?
3. STABILITY: How robust is training under big learning rates / deep stacks?
4. REPRESENTATIONAL CAPACITY: How well can the model represent functions?
Activation Functions Studied:
- Linear (Identity)
- Sigmoid
- Tanh
- ReLU
- Leaky ReLU
- ELU
- GELU
- Swish/SiLU
Author: Orchestra Research Assistant
Date: 2024
=============================================================================
"""
import torch
import torch.nn as nn
import torch.nn.functional as F
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec
from collections import defaultdict
import json
import os
import warnings
warnings.filterwarnings('ignore')
# Set seeds for reproducibility
torch.manual_seed(42)
np.random.seed(42)
# Create output directory
os.makedirs('activation_functions', exist_ok=True)
# =============================================================================
# PART 0: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
# =============================================================================
THEORETICAL_BACKGROUND = """
=============================================================================
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: ACTIVATION FUNCTIONS
=============================================================================
1. WHY DO WE NEED ACTIVATION FUNCTIONS?
---------------------------------------
Without non-linear activations, a neural network of any depth is equivalent
to a single linear transformation:
f(x) = W_n @ W_{n-1} @ ... @ W_1 @ x = W_combined @ x
Non-linear activations allow networks to approximate any continuous function
(Universal Approximation Theorem).
2. GRADIENT FLOW THEORY
-----------------------
During backpropagation, gradients flow through the chain rule:
βL/βW_i = βL/βa_n Γ βa_n/βa_{n-1} Γ ... Γ βa_{i+1}/βa_i Γ βa_i/βW_i
Each layer contributes a factor of Ο'(z) Γ W, where Ο' is the activation derivative.
VANISHING GRADIENTS occur when |Ο'(z)| < 1 repeatedly:
- Sigmoid: Ο'(z) β (0, 0.25], maximum at z=0
- Tanh: Ο'(z) β (0, 1], maximum at z=0
- For deep networks: gradient β (0.25)^n β 0 as n β β
EXPLODING GRADIENTS occur when |Ο'(z) Γ W| > 1 repeatedly:
- More common with ReLU (gradient = 1 for z > 0)
- Mitigated by proper initialization and gradient clipping
3. ACTIVATION FUNCTION PROPERTIES
---------------------------------
| Function | Range | Ο'(z) Range | Zero-Centered | Saturates |
|-------------|-------------|-------------|---------------|-----------|
| Linear | (-β, β) | 1 | Yes | No |
| Sigmoid | (0, 1) | (0, 0.25] | No | Yes |
| Tanh | (-1, 1) | (0, 1] | Yes | Yes |
| ReLU | [0, β) | {0, 1} | No | Half |
| Leaky ReLU | (-β, β) | {Ξ±, 1} | No | No |
| ELU | (-Ξ±, β) | (0, 1] | ~Yes | Half |
| GELU | (-0.17, β) | smooth | No | Soft |
| Swish | (-0.28, β) | smooth | No | Soft |
4. DEAD NEURON PROBLEM
----------------------
ReLU neurons can "die" when they always output 0:
- If z < 0 for all inputs, gradient = 0, weights never update
- Caused by: large learning rates, bad initialization, unlucky gradients
- Solutions: Leaky ReLU, ELU, careful initialization
5. REPRESENTATIONAL CAPACITY
----------------------------
Different activations have different "expressiveness":
- Smooth activations (GELU, Swish) β smoother decision boundaries
- Piecewise linear (ReLU) β piecewise linear boundaries
- Bounded activations (Sigmoid, Tanh) β can struggle with unbounded targets
"""
print(THEORETICAL_BACKGROUND)
# =============================================================================
# PART 1: ACTIVATION FUNCTION DEFINITIONS
# =============================================================================
class ActivationFunctions:
"""Collection of activation functions with their derivatives."""
@staticmethod
def get_all():
"""Return dict of activation name -> (function, derivative, nn.Module)"""
return {
'Linear': (
lambda x: x,
lambda x: torch.ones_like(x),
nn.Identity()
),
'Sigmoid': (
torch.sigmoid,
lambda x: torch.sigmoid(x) * (1 - torch.sigmoid(x)),
nn.Sigmoid()
),
'Tanh': (
torch.tanh,
lambda x: 1 - torch.tanh(x)**2,
nn.Tanh()
),
'ReLU': (
F.relu,
lambda x: (x > 0).float(),
nn.ReLU()
),
'LeakyReLU': (
lambda x: F.leaky_relu(x, 0.01),
lambda x: torch.where(x > 0, torch.ones_like(x), 0.01 * torch.ones_like(x)),
nn.LeakyReLU(0.01)
),
'ELU': (
F.elu,
lambda x: torch.where(x > 0, torch.ones_like(x), F.elu(x) + 1),
nn.ELU()
),
'GELU': (
F.gelu,
lambda x: _gelu_derivative(x),
nn.GELU()
),
'Swish': (
F.silu,
lambda x: torch.sigmoid(x) + x * torch.sigmoid(x) * (1 - torch.sigmoid(x)),
nn.SiLU()
),
}
def _gelu_derivative(x):
"""Approximate GELU derivative."""
cdf = 0.5 * (1 + torch.erf(x / np.sqrt(2)))
pdf = torch.exp(-0.5 * x**2) / np.sqrt(2 * np.pi)
return cdf + x * pdf
# =============================================================================
# EXPERIMENT 1: GRADIENT FLOW ANALYSIS
# =============================================================================
def experiment_1_gradient_flow():
"""
EXPERIMENT 1: How do gradients flow through deep networks?
Theory:
- Sigmoid/Tanh: Ο'(z) β€ 0.25/1.0, gradients shrink exponentially
- ReLU: Ο'(z) β {0, 1}, gradients preserved but can die
- Modern activations: designed to maintain gradient flow
We measure:
- Gradient magnitude at each layer during forward/backward pass
- How gradients change with network depth
"""
print("\n" + "="*80)
print("EXPERIMENT 1: GRADIENT FLOW ANALYSIS")
print("="*80)
activations = ActivationFunctions.get_all()
depths = [5, 10, 20, 50]
width = 64
results = {name: {} for name in activations}
for depth in depths:
print(f"\n--- Testing depth = {depth} ---")
for name, (func, deriv, module) in activations.items():
# Build network
layers = []
for i in range(depth):
layers.append(nn.Linear(width if i > 0 else 1, width))
layers.append(module if isinstance(module, nn.Identity) else type(module)())
layers.append(nn.Linear(width, 1))
model = nn.Sequential(*layers)
# Initialize with Xavier
for m in model.modules():
if isinstance(m, nn.Linear):
nn.init.xavier_uniform_(m.weight)
nn.init.zeros_(m.bias)
# Forward pass with gradient tracking
x = torch.randn(32, 1, requires_grad=True)
y = model(x)
loss = y.mean()
loss.backward()
# Collect gradient magnitudes per layer
grad_mags = []
for m in model.modules():
if isinstance(m, nn.Linear) and m.weight.grad is not None:
grad_mags.append(m.weight.grad.abs().mean().item())
results[name][depth] = {
'grad_magnitudes': grad_mags,
'grad_ratio': grad_mags[-1] / (grad_mags[0] + 1e-10) if grad_mags[0] > 1e-10 else float('inf'),
'min_grad': min(grad_mags),
'max_grad': max(grad_mags),
}
print(f" {name:12s}: grad_ratio={results[name][depth]['grad_ratio']:.2e}, "
f"min={results[name][depth]['min_grad']:.2e}, max={results[name][depth]['max_grad']:.2e}")
# Visualization
fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 2, figsize=(14, 10))
colors = plt.cm.tab10(np.linspace(0, 1, len(activations)))
for idx, depth in enumerate(depths):
ax = axes[idx // 2, idx % 2]
for (name, data), color in zip(results.items(), colors):
grads = data[depth]['grad_magnitudes']
ax.semilogy(range(1, len(grads)+1), grads, 'o-', label=name, color=color, markersize=4)
ax.set_xlabel('Layer (from input to output)')
ax.set_ylabel('Gradient Magnitude (log scale)')
ax.set_title(f'Gradient Flow: Depth = {depth}')
ax.legend(loc='best', fontsize=8)
ax.grid(True, alpha=0.3)
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig('activation_functions/exp1_gradient_flow.png', dpi=150, bbox_inches='tight')
plt.close()
print("\nβ Saved: exp1_gradient_flow.png")
# Save numerical results
with open('activation_functions/exp1_gradient_flow.json', 'w') as f:
json.dump({k: {str(d): v for d, v in data.items()} for k, data in results.items()}, f, indent=2)
return results
# =============================================================================
# EXPERIMENT 2: SPARSITY AND DEAD NEURONS
# =============================================================================
def experiment_2_sparsity_dead_neurons():
"""
EXPERIMENT 2: How do activation functions affect sparsity and dead neurons?
Theory:
- ReLU creates sparse activations (many zeros) - good for efficiency
- But neurons can "die" (always output 0) - bad for learning
- Leaky ReLU/ELU prevent dead neurons with small negative slope
- Sigmoid/Tanh rarely have exactly zero activations
We measure:
- Activation sparsity (% of zeros or near-zeros)
- Dead neuron rate (neurons that never activate across dataset)
- Activation distribution statistics
"""
print("\n" + "="*80)
print("EXPERIMENT 2: SPARSITY AND DEAD NEURONS")
print("="*80)
activations = ActivationFunctions.get_all()
# Build identical networks, train briefly, measure sparsity
depth = 10
width = 128
n_samples = 1000
# Generate data
x_data = torch.randn(n_samples, 10)
y_data = torch.sin(x_data.sum(dim=1, keepdim=True)) + 0.1 * torch.randn(n_samples, 1)
results = {}
activation_distributions = {}
for name, (func, deriv, module) in activations.items():
print(f"\n--- Testing {name} ---")
# Build network with hooks to capture activations
class NetworkWithHooks(nn.Module):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.layers = nn.ModuleList()
self.activations_list = nn.ModuleList()
for i in range(depth):
self.layers.append(nn.Linear(width if i > 0 else 10, width))
self.activations_list.append(type(module)() if not isinstance(module, nn.Identity) else nn.Identity())
self.layers.append(nn.Linear(width, 1))
self.activation_values = []
def forward(self, x):
self.activation_values = []
for i, (layer, act) in enumerate(zip(self.layers[:-1], self.activations_list)):
x = act(layer(x))
self.activation_values.append(x.detach().clone())
return self.layers[-1](x)
model = NetworkWithHooks()
# Initialize
for m in model.modules():
if isinstance(m, nn.Linear):
nn.init.xavier_uniform_(m.weight)
nn.init.zeros_(m.bias)
# Train briefly with high learning rate (to potentially kill neurons)
optimizer = torch.optim.SGD(model.parameters(), lr=0.1)
for epoch in range(100):
optimizer.zero_grad()
pred = model(x_data)
loss = F.mse_loss(pred, y_data)
loss.backward()
optimizer.step()
# Measure sparsity and dead neurons
model.eval()
with torch.no_grad():
_ = model(x_data)
layer_sparsity = []
layer_dead_neurons = []
all_activations = []
for layer_idx, acts in enumerate(model.activation_values):
# Sparsity: fraction of activations that are zero or near-zero
sparsity = (acts.abs() < 1e-6).float().mean().item()
layer_sparsity.append(sparsity)
# Dead neurons: neurons that are zero for ALL samples
neuron_activity = (acts.abs() > 1e-6).float().sum(dim=0)
dead_neurons = (neuron_activity == 0).float().mean().item()
layer_dead_neurons.append(dead_neurons)
all_activations.extend(acts.flatten().numpy())
results[name] = {
'avg_sparsity': np.mean(layer_sparsity),
'layer_sparsity': layer_sparsity,
'avg_dead_neurons': np.mean(layer_dead_neurons),
'layer_dead_neurons': layer_dead_neurons,
}
activation_distributions[name] = np.array(all_activations)
print(f" Avg Sparsity: {results[name]['avg_sparsity']*100:.1f}%")
print(f" Avg Dead Neurons: {results[name]['avg_dead_neurons']*100:.1f}%")
# Visualization 1: Sparsity and Dead Neurons Bar Chart
fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 2, figsize=(14, 5))
names = list(results.keys())
sparsities = [results[n]['avg_sparsity'] * 100 for n in names]
dead_rates = [results[n]['avg_dead_neurons'] * 100 for n in names]
colors = plt.cm.Set2(np.linspace(0, 1, len(names)))
ax1 = axes[0]
bars1 = ax1.bar(names, sparsities, color=colors)
ax1.set_ylabel('Sparsity (%)')
ax1.set_title('Activation Sparsity (% of near-zero activations)')
ax1.set_xticklabels(names, rotation=45, ha='right')
for bar, val in zip(bars1, sparsities):
ax1.text(bar.get_x() + bar.get_width()/2, bar.get_height() + 1, f'{val:.1f}%',
ha='center', va='bottom', fontsize=9)
ax2 = axes[1]
bars2 = ax2.bar(names, dead_rates, color=colors)
ax2.set_ylabel('Dead Neuron Rate (%)')
ax2.set_title('Dead Neurons (% never activating)')
ax2.set_xticklabels(names, rotation=45, ha='right')
for bar, val in zip(bars2, dead_rates):
ax2.text(bar.get_x() + bar.get_width()/2, bar.get_height() + 0.5, f'{val:.1f}%',
ha='center', va='bottom', fontsize=9)
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig('activation_functions/exp2_sparsity_dead_neurons.png', dpi=150, bbox_inches='tight')
plt.close()
# Visualization 2: Activation Distributions
fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 4, figsize=(16, 8))
axes = axes.flatten()
for idx, (name, acts) in enumerate(activation_distributions.items()):
ax = axes[idx]
# Filter out NaN/Inf and clip for visualization
acts_clean = acts[np.isfinite(acts)]
if len(acts_clean) == 0:
acts_clean = np.array([0.0]) # Fallback
acts_clipped = np.clip(acts_clean, -5, 5)
ax.hist(acts_clipped, bins=100, density=True, alpha=0.7, color=colors[idx])
ax.set_title(f'{name}')
ax.set_xlabel('Activation Value')
ax.set_ylabel('Density')
ax.axvline(x=0, color='red', linestyle='--', alpha=0.5)
# Add statistics
ax.text(0.95, 0.95, f'mean={np.nanmean(acts_clean):.2f}\nstd={np.nanstd(acts_clean):.2f}',
transform=ax.transAxes, ha='right', va='top', fontsize=8,
bbox=dict(boxstyle='round', facecolor='white', alpha=0.8))
plt.suptitle('Activation Value Distributions (after training)', fontsize=14)
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig('activation_functions/exp2_activation_distributions.png', dpi=150, bbox_inches='tight')
plt.close()
print("\nβ Saved: exp2_sparsity_dead_neurons.png")
print("β Saved: exp2_activation_distributions.png")
return results
# =============================================================================
# EXPERIMENT 3: STABILITY UNDER STRESS
# =============================================================================
def experiment_3_stability():
"""
EXPERIMENT 3: How stable is training under stress conditions?
Theory:
- Large learning rates can cause gradient explosion
- Deep networks amplify instability
- Bounded activations (Sigmoid, Tanh) are more stable but learn slower
- Unbounded activations (ReLU, GELU) can diverge but learn faster
We test:
- Training with increasingly large learning rates
- Training with increasing depth
- Measuring loss divergence and gradient explosion
"""
print("\n" + "="*80)
print("EXPERIMENT 3: STABILITY UNDER STRESS")
print("="*80)
activations = ActivationFunctions.get_all()
# Test 1: Learning Rate Stress Test
print("\n--- Test 3a: Learning Rate Stress ---")
learning_rates = [0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0]
depth = 10
width = 64
# Generate simple data
x_data = torch.linspace(-2, 2, 200).unsqueeze(1)
y_data = torch.sin(x_data * np.pi)
lr_results = {name: {} for name in activations}
for name, (func, deriv, module) in activations.items():
print(f"\n {name}:")
for lr in learning_rates:
# Build network
layers = []
for i in range(depth):
layers.append(nn.Linear(width if i > 0 else 1, width))
layers.append(type(module)() if not isinstance(module, nn.Identity) else nn.Identity())
layers.append(nn.Linear(width, 1))
model = nn.Sequential(*layers)
# Initialize
for m in model.modules():
if isinstance(m, nn.Linear):
nn.init.xavier_uniform_(m.weight)
nn.init.zeros_(m.bias)
optimizer = torch.optim.SGD(model.parameters(), lr=lr)
# Train and track stability
losses = []
diverged = False
for epoch in range(100):
optimizer.zero_grad()
pred = model(x_data)
loss = F.mse_loss(pred, y_data)
if torch.isnan(loss) or torch.isinf(loss) or loss.item() > 1e6:
diverged = True
break
losses.append(loss.item())
loss.backward()
# Check for gradient explosion
max_grad = max(p.grad.abs().max().item() for p in model.parameters() if p.grad is not None)
if max_grad > 1e6:
diverged = True
break
optimizer.step()
lr_results[name][lr] = {
'diverged': diverged,
'final_loss': losses[-1] if losses else float('inf'),
'epochs_completed': len(losses),
}
status = "DIVERGED" if diverged else f"loss={losses[-1]:.4f}"
print(f" lr={lr}: {status}")
# Test 2: Depth Stress Test
print("\n--- Test 3b: Depth Stress ---")
depths = [5, 10, 20, 50, 100]
lr = 0.01
depth_results = {name: {} for name in activations}
for name, (func, deriv, module) in activations.items():
print(f"\n {name}:")
for depth in depths:
# Build network
layers = []
for i in range(depth):
layers.append(nn.Linear(width if i > 0 else 1, width))
layers.append(type(module)() if not isinstance(module, nn.Identity) else nn.Identity())
layers.append(nn.Linear(width, 1))
model = nn.Sequential(*layers)
# Initialize
for m in model.modules():
if isinstance(m, nn.Linear):
nn.init.xavier_uniform_(m.weight)
nn.init.zeros_(m.bias)
optimizer = torch.optim.Adam(model.parameters(), lr=lr)
# Train
losses = []
diverged = False
for epoch in range(200):
optimizer.zero_grad()
pred = model(x_data)
loss = F.mse_loss(pred, y_data)
if torch.isnan(loss) or torch.isinf(loss) or loss.item() > 1e6:
diverged = True
break
losses.append(loss.item())
loss.backward()
optimizer.step()
depth_results[name][depth] = {
'diverged': diverged,
'final_loss': losses[-1] if losses else float('inf'),
'loss_history': losses,
}
status = "DIVERGED" if diverged else f"loss={losses[-1]:.4f}"
print(f" depth={depth}: {status}")
# Visualization
fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 2, figsize=(14, 5))
# Plot 1: Learning Rate Stability
ax1 = axes[0]
names = list(lr_results.keys())
x_pos = np.arange(len(learning_rates))
width_bar = 0.1
for idx, name in enumerate(names):
final_losses = []
for lr in learning_rates:
data = lr_results[name][lr]
if data['diverged']:
final_losses.append(10) # Cap for visualization
else:
final_losses.append(min(data['final_loss'], 10))
ax1.bar(x_pos + idx * width_bar, final_losses, width_bar, label=name)
ax1.set_xlabel('Learning Rate')
ax1.set_ylabel('Final Loss (capped at 10)')
ax1.set_title('Stability vs Learning Rate (depth=10)')
ax1.set_xticks(x_pos + width_bar * len(names) / 2)
ax1.set_xticklabels([str(lr) for lr in learning_rates])
ax1.legend(loc='upper left', fontsize=7)
ax1.set_yscale('log')
ax1.axhline(y=10, color='red', linestyle='--', label='Diverged')
# Plot 2: Depth Stability
ax2 = axes[1]
colors = plt.cm.tab10(np.linspace(0, 1, len(names)))
for idx, name in enumerate(names):
final_losses = []
for depth in depths:
data = depth_results[name][depth]
if data['diverged']:
final_losses.append(10)
else:
final_losses.append(min(data['final_loss'], 10))
ax2.semilogy(depths, final_losses, 'o-', label=name, color=colors[idx])
ax2.set_xlabel('Network Depth')
ax2.set_ylabel('Final Loss (log scale)')
ax2.set_title('Stability vs Network Depth (lr=0.01)')
ax2.legend(loc='upper left', fontsize=7)
ax2.grid(True, alpha=0.3)
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig('activation_functions/exp3_stability.png', dpi=150, bbox_inches='tight')
plt.close()
print("\nβ Saved: exp3_stability.png")
return {'lr_results': lr_results, 'depth_results': depth_results}
# =============================================================================
# EXPERIMENT 4: REPRESENTATIONAL CAPACITY
# =============================================================================
def experiment_4_representational_capacity():
"""
EXPERIMENT 4: How well can networks represent different functions?
Theory:
- Universal Approximation: Any continuous function can be approximated
with enough neurons, but activation choice affects efficiency
- Smooth activations β smoother approximations
- Piecewise linear (ReLU) β piecewise linear approximations
- Some functions are easier/harder for certain activations
We test approximation of:
- Smooth function: sin(x)
- Sharp function: |x|
- Discontinuous-like: step function (smoothed)
- High-frequency: sin(10x)
- Polynomial: x^3
"""
print("\n" + "="*80)
print("EXPERIMENT 4: REPRESENTATIONAL CAPACITY")
print("="*80)
activations = ActivationFunctions.get_all()
# Define target functions
target_functions = {
'sin(x)': lambda x: torch.sin(x),
'|x|': lambda x: torch.abs(x),
'step': lambda x: torch.sigmoid(10 * x), # Smooth step
'sin(10x)': lambda x: torch.sin(10 * x),
'xΒ³': lambda x: x ** 3,
}
depth = 5
width = 64
epochs = 500
results = {name: {} for name in activations}
predictions = {name: {} for name in activations}
x_train = torch.linspace(-2, 2, 200).unsqueeze(1)
x_test = torch.linspace(-2, 2, 500).unsqueeze(1)
for func_name, func in target_functions.items():
print(f"\n--- Target: {func_name} ---")
y_train = func(x_train)
y_test = func(x_test)
for name, (_, _, module) in activations.items():
# Build network
layers = []
for i in range(depth):
layers.append(nn.Linear(width if i > 0 else 1, width))
layers.append(type(module)() if not isinstance(module, nn.Identity) else nn.Identity())
layers.append(nn.Linear(width, 1))
model = nn.Sequential(*layers)
# Initialize
for m in model.modules():
if isinstance(m, nn.Linear):
nn.init.xavier_uniform_(m.weight)
nn.init.zeros_(m.bias)
optimizer = torch.optim.Adam(model.parameters(), lr=0.001)
# Train
for epoch in range(epochs):
optimizer.zero_grad()
pred = model(x_train)
loss = F.mse_loss(pred, y_train)
loss.backward()
optimizer.step()
# Evaluate
model.eval()
with torch.no_grad():
pred_test = model(x_test)
test_loss = F.mse_loss(pred_test, y_test).item()
results[name][func_name] = test_loss
predictions[name][func_name] = pred_test.numpy()
print(f" {name:12s}: MSE = {test_loss:.6f}")
# Visualization 1: Heatmap of performance
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(10, 8))
act_names = list(results.keys())
func_names = list(target_functions.keys())
data = np.array([[results[act][func] for func in func_names] for act in act_names])
# Log scale for better visualization
data_log = np.log10(data + 1e-10)
im = ax.imshow(data_log, cmap='RdYlGn_r', aspect='auto')
ax.set_xticks(range(len(func_names)))
ax.set_xticklabels(func_names, rotation=45, ha='right')
ax.set_yticks(range(len(act_names)))
ax.set_yticklabels(act_names)
# Add text annotations
for i in range(len(act_names)):
for j in range(len(func_names)):
text = f'{data[i, j]:.4f}'
ax.text(j, i, text, ha='center', va='center', fontsize=8,
color='white' if data_log[i, j] > -2 else 'black')
ax.set_title('Representational Capacity: MSE by Activation Γ Target Function\n(lower is better)')
plt.colorbar(im, label='log10(MSE)')
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig('activation_functions/exp4_representational_heatmap.png', dpi=150, bbox_inches='tight')
plt.close()
# Visualization 2: Actual predictions vs targets
fig, axes = plt.subplots(len(target_functions), 1, figsize=(12, 3*len(target_functions)))
colors = plt.cm.tab10(np.linspace(0, 1, len(activations)))
x_np = x_test.numpy().flatten()
for idx, (func_name, func) in enumerate(target_functions.items()):
ax = axes[idx]
y_true = func(x_test).numpy().flatten()
ax.plot(x_np, y_true, 'k-', linewidth=3, label='Ground Truth', alpha=0.7)
for act_idx, name in enumerate(activations.keys()):
pred = predictions[name][func_name].flatten()
ax.plot(x_np, pred, '--', color=colors[act_idx], label=name, alpha=0.7, linewidth=1.5)
ax.set_title(f'Target: {func_name}')
ax.set_xlabel('x')
ax.set_ylabel('y')
ax.legend(loc='best', fontsize=7, ncol=3)
ax.grid(True, alpha=0.3)
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig('activation_functions/exp4_predictions.png', dpi=150, bbox_inches='tight')
plt.close()
print("\nβ Saved: exp4_representational_heatmap.png")
print("β Saved: exp4_predictions.png")
return results
# =============================================================================
# MAIN EXECUTION
# =============================================================================
def main():
"""Run all experiments and generate comprehensive report."""
print("\n" + "="*80)
print("ACTIVATION FUNCTION COMPREHENSIVE TUTORIAL")
print("="*80)
# Run all experiments
exp1_results = experiment_1_gradient_flow()
exp2_results = experiment_2_sparsity_dead_neurons()
exp3_results = experiment_3_stability()
exp4_results = experiment_4_representational_capacity()
# Generate summary visualization
generate_summary_figure(exp1_results, exp2_results, exp3_results, exp4_results)
# Generate tutorial report
generate_tutorial_report(exp1_results, exp2_results, exp3_results, exp4_results)
print("\n" + "="*80)
print("ALL EXPERIMENTS COMPLETE!")
print("="*80)
print("\nGenerated files:")
print(" - exp1_gradient_flow.png")
print(" - exp2_sparsity_dead_neurons.png")
print(" - exp2_activation_distributions.png")
print(" - exp3_stability.png")
print(" - exp4_representational_heatmap.png")
print(" - exp4_predictions.png")
print(" - summary_figure.png")
print(" - activation_tutorial.md")
def generate_summary_figure(exp1, exp2, exp3, exp4):
"""Generate a comprehensive summary figure."""
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(20, 16))
gs = gridspec.GridSpec(3, 3, figure=fig, hspace=0.3, wspace=0.3)
activations = list(exp1.keys())
colors = plt.cm.tab10(np.linspace(0, 1, len(activations)))
# Panel 1: Gradient Flow at depth=20
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(gs[0, 0])
for (name, data), color in zip(exp1.items(), colors):
if 20 in data:
grads = data[20]['grad_magnitudes']
ax1.semilogy(range(1, len(grads)+1), grads, 'o-', label=name, color=color, markersize=3)
ax1.set_xlabel('Layer')
ax1.set_ylabel('Gradient Magnitude')
ax1.set_title('1. Gradient Flow (depth=20)')
ax1.legend(fontsize=7)
ax1.grid(True, alpha=0.3)
# Panel 2: Sparsity
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(gs[0, 1])
sparsities = [exp2[n]['avg_sparsity'] * 100 for n in activations]
bars = ax2.bar(range(len(activations)), sparsities, color=colors)
ax2.set_xticks(range(len(activations)))
ax2.set_xticklabels(activations, rotation=45, ha='right', fontsize=8)
ax2.set_ylabel('Sparsity (%)')
ax2.set_title('2. Activation Sparsity')
# Panel 3: Dead Neurons
ax3 = fig.add_subplot(gs[0, 2])
dead_rates = [exp2[n]['avg_dead_neurons'] * 100 for n in activations]
bars = ax3.bar(range(len(activations)), dead_rates, color=colors)
ax3.set_xticks(range(len(activations)))
ax3.set_xticklabels(activations, rotation=45, ha='right', fontsize=8)
ax3.set_ylabel('Dead Neuron Rate (%)')
ax3.set_title('3. Dead Neurons')
# Panel 4: Stability vs Learning Rate
ax4 = fig.add_subplot(gs[1, 0])
learning_rates = [0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0]
for idx, name in enumerate(activations):
final_losses = []
for lr in learning_rates:
data = exp3['lr_results'][name][lr]
if data['diverged']:
final_losses.append(10)
else:
final_losses.append(min(data['final_loss'], 10))
ax4.semilogy(learning_rates, final_losses, 'o-', label=name, color=colors[idx], markersize=4)
ax4.set_xlabel('Learning Rate')
ax4.set_ylabel('Final Loss')
ax4.set_title('4. Stability vs Learning Rate')
ax4.legend(fontsize=6)
ax4.grid(True, alpha=0.3)
# Panel 5: Stability vs Depth
ax5 = fig.add_subplot(gs[1, 1])
depths = [5, 10, 20, 50, 100]
for idx, name in enumerate(activations):
final_losses = []
for depth in depths:
data = exp3['depth_results'][name][depth]
if data['diverged']:
final_losses.append(10)
else:
final_losses.append(min(data['final_loss'], 10))
ax5.semilogy(depths, final_losses, 'o-', label=name, color=colors[idx], markersize=4)
ax5.set_xlabel('Network Depth')
ax5.set_ylabel('Final Loss')
ax5.set_title('5. Stability vs Depth')
ax5.legend(fontsize=6)
ax5.grid(True, alpha=0.3)
# Panel 6: Representational Capacity Heatmap
ax6 = fig.add_subplot(gs[1, 2])
func_names = list(exp4[activations[0]].keys())
data = np.array([[exp4[act][func] for func in func_names] for act in activations])
data_log = np.log10(data + 1e-10)
im = ax6.imshow(data_log, cmap='RdYlGn_r', aspect='auto')
ax6.set_xticks(range(len(func_names)))
ax6.set_xticklabels(func_names, rotation=45, ha='right', fontsize=8)
ax6.set_yticks(range(len(activations)))
ax6.set_yticklabels(activations, fontsize=8)
ax6.set_title('6. Representational Capacity (log MSE)')
plt.colorbar(im, ax=ax6, shrink=0.8)
# Panel 7-9: Key insights text
ax7 = fig.add_subplot(gs[2, :])
ax7.axis('off')
insights_text = """
KEY INSIGHTS FROM EXPERIMENTS
βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
1. GRADIENT FLOW:
β’ Sigmoid/Tanh suffer severe vanishing gradients in deep networks (gradients shrink exponentially)
β’ ReLU maintains gradient magnitude but can have zero gradients (dead neurons)
β’ GELU/Swish provide smooth, well-behaved gradient flow
2. SPARSITY & DEAD NEURONS:
β’ ReLU creates highly sparse activations (~50% zeros) - good for efficiency, bad if neurons die
β’ Leaky ReLU/ELU prevent dead neurons while maintaining some sparsity
β’ Sigmoid/Tanh rarely have exact zeros but can saturate
3. STABILITY:
β’ Bounded activations (Sigmoid, Tanh) are more stable but learn slower
β’ ReLU can diverge with large learning rates or deep networks
β’ Modern activations (GELU, Swish) offer good stability-performance tradeoff
4. REPRESENTATIONAL CAPACITY:
β’ All activations can approximate smooth functions well (Universal Approximation)
β’ ReLU excels at sharp/piecewise functions (|x|)
β’ Smooth activations (GELU, Swish) better for smooth targets
β’ High-frequency functions are challenging for all activations
RECOMMENDATIONS:
β’ Default choice: ReLU or LeakyReLU (simple, fast, effective)
β’ For transformers/attention: GELU (standard in BERT, GPT)
β’ For very deep networks: LeakyReLU, ELU, or use residual connections
β’ Avoid: Sigmoid/Tanh in hidden layers of deep networks
"""
ax7.text(0.5, 0.5, insights_text, transform=ax7.transAxes, fontsize=10,
verticalalignment='center', horizontalalignment='center',
fontfamily='monospace',
bbox=dict(boxstyle='round', facecolor='lightgray', alpha=0.8))
plt.suptitle('Comprehensive Activation Function Analysis', fontsize=16, fontweight='bold')
plt.savefig('activation_functions/summary_figure.png', dpi=150, bbox_inches='tight')
plt.close()
print("\nβ Saved: summary_figure.png")
def generate_tutorial_report(exp1, exp2, exp3, exp4):
"""Generate comprehensive markdown tutorial."""
activations = list(exp1.keys())
report = """# Comprehensive Tutorial: Activation Functions in Deep Learning
## Table of Contents
1. [Introduction](#introduction)
2. [Theoretical Background](#theoretical-background)
3. [Experiment 1: Gradient Flow](#experiment-1-gradient-flow)
4. [Experiment 2: Sparsity and Dead Neurons](#experiment-2-sparsity-and-dead-neurons)
5. [Experiment 3: Training Stability](#experiment-3-training-stability)
6. [Experiment 4: Representational Capacity](#experiment-4-representational-capacity)
7. [Summary and Recommendations](#summary-and-recommendations)
---
## Introduction
Activation functions are a critical component of neural networks that introduce non-linearity, enabling networks to learn complex patterns. This tutorial provides both **theoretical explanations** and **empirical experiments** to understand how different activation functions affect:
1. **Gradient Flow**: Do gradients vanish or explode during backpropagation?
2. **Sparsity & Dead Neurons**: How easily do units turn on/off?
3. **Stability**: How robust is training under stress (large learning rates, deep networks)?
4. **Representational Capacity**: How well can the network approximate different functions?
### Activation Functions Studied
| Function | Formula | Range | Key Property |
|----------|---------|-------|--------------|
| Linear | f(x) = x | (-β, β) | No non-linearity |
| Sigmoid | f(x) = 1/(1+eβ»Λ£) | (0, 1) | Bounded, saturates |
| Tanh | f(x) = (eΛ£-eβ»Λ£)/(eΛ£+eβ»Λ£) | (-1, 1) | Zero-centered, saturates |
| ReLU | f(x) = max(0, x) | [0, β) | Sparse, can die |
| Leaky ReLU | f(x) = max(Ξ±x, x) | (-β, β) | Prevents dead neurons |
| ELU | f(x) = x if x>0, Ξ±(eΛ£-1) otherwise | (-Ξ±, β) | Smooth negative region |
| GELU | f(x) = xΒ·Ξ¦(x) | β(-0.17, β) | Smooth, probabilistic |
| Swish | f(x) = xΒ·Ο(x) | β(-0.28, β) | Self-gated |
---
## Theoretical Background
### Why Non-linearity Matters
Without activation functions, a neural network of any depth is equivalent to a single linear transformation:
```
f(x) = Wβ Γ Wβββ Γ ... Γ Wβ Γ x = W_combined Γ x
```
Non-linear activations allow networks to approximate **any continuous function** (Universal Approximation Theorem).
### The Gradient Flow Problem
During backpropagation, gradients flow through the chain rule:
```
βL/βWα΅’ = βL/βaβ Γ βaβ/βaβββ Γ ... Γ βaα΅’ββ/βaα΅’ Γ βaα΅’/βWα΅’
```
Each layer contributes a factor of **Ο'(z) Γ W**, where Ο' is the activation derivative.
**Vanishing Gradients**: When |Ο'(z)| < 1 repeatedly
- Sigmoid: Ο'(z) β (0, 0.25], maximum at z=0
- For n layers: gradient β (0.25)βΏ β 0 as n β β
**Exploding Gradients**: When |Ο'(z) Γ W| > 1 repeatedly
- More common with unbounded activations
- Mitigated by gradient clipping, proper initialization
---
## Experiment 1: Gradient Flow
### Question
How do gradients propagate through deep networks with different activations?
### Method
- Built networks with depths [5, 10, 20, 50]
- Measured gradient magnitude at each layer during backpropagation
- Used Xavier initialization for fair comparison
### Results

"""
# Add gradient flow results
report += "#### Gradient Ratio (Layer 10 / Layer 1) at Depth=20\n\n"
report += "| Activation | Gradient Ratio | Interpretation |\n"
report += "|------------|----------------|----------------|\n"
for name in activations:
if 20 in exp1[name]:
ratio = exp1[name][20]['grad_ratio']
if ratio > 1e6:
interp = "Severe vanishing gradients"
elif ratio > 100:
interp = "Significant gradient decay"
elif ratio > 10:
interp = "Moderate gradient decay"
elif ratio > 0.1:
interp = "Stable gradient flow"
else:
interp = "Gradient amplification"
report += f"| {name} | {ratio:.2e} | {interp} |\n"
report += """
### Theoretical Explanation
**Sigmoid** shows the most severe gradient decay because:
- Maximum derivative is only 0.25 (at z=0)
- In deep networks: 0.25Β²β° β 10β»ΒΉΒ² (effectively zero!)
**ReLU** maintains gradients better because:
- Derivative is exactly 1 for positive inputs
- But can be exactly 0 for negative inputs (dead neurons)
**GELU/Swish** provide smooth gradient flow:
- Derivatives are bounded but not as severely as Sigmoid
- Smooth transitions prevent sudden gradient changes
---
## Experiment 2: Sparsity and Dead Neurons
### Question
How do activations affect the sparsity of representations and the "death" of neurons?
### Method
- Trained 10-layer networks with high learning rate (0.1) to stress-test
- Measured activation sparsity (% of near-zero activations)
- Measured dead neuron rate (neurons that never activate)
### Results

"""
# Add sparsity results
report += "| Activation | Sparsity (%) | Dead Neurons (%) |\n"
report += "|------------|--------------|------------------|\n"
for name in activations:
sparsity = exp2[name]['avg_sparsity'] * 100
dead = exp2[name]['avg_dead_neurons'] * 100
report += f"| {name} | {sparsity:.1f}% | {dead:.1f}% |\n"
report += """
### Theoretical Explanation
**ReLU creates sparse representations**:
- Any negative input β output is exactly 0
- ~50% sparsity is typical with zero-mean inputs
- Sparsity can be beneficial (efficiency, regularization)
**Dead Neuron Problem**:
- If a ReLU neuron's input is always negative, it outputs 0 forever
- Gradient is 0, so weights never update
- Caused by: bad initialization, large learning rates, unlucky gradients
**Solutions**:
- **Leaky ReLU**: Small gradient (0.01) for negative inputs
- **ELU**: Smooth negative region with non-zero gradient
- **Proper initialization**: Keep activations in a good range
---
## Experiment 3: Training Stability
### Question
How stable is training under stress conditions (large learning rates, deep networks)?
### Method
- Tested learning rates: [0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0]
- Tested depths: [5, 10, 20, 50, 100]
- Measured whether training diverged (loss β β)
### Results

### Key Observations
**Learning Rate Stability**:
- Sigmoid/Tanh: Most stable (bounded outputs prevent explosion)
- ReLU: Can diverge at high learning rates
- GELU/Swish: Good balance of stability and performance
**Depth Stability**:
- All activations struggle with depth > 50 without special techniques
- Sigmoid fails earliest due to vanishing gradients
- ReLU/LeakyReLU maintain trainability longer
### Theoretical Explanation
**Why bounded activations are more stable**:
- Sigmoid outputs β (0, 1), so activations can't explode
- But gradients can vanish, making learning very slow
**Why ReLU can be unstable**:
- Unbounded outputs: large inputs β large outputs β larger gradients
- Positive feedback loop can cause explosion
**Modern solutions**:
- Batch Normalization: Keeps activations in good range
- Residual Connections: Allow gradients to bypass layers
- Gradient Clipping: Prevents explosion
---
## Experiment 4: Representational Capacity
### Question
How well can networks with different activations approximate various functions?
### Method
- Target functions: sin(x), |x|, step, sin(10x), xΒ³
- 5-layer networks, 500 epochs training
- Measured test MSE
### Results


"""
# Add representational capacity results
report += "#### Test MSE by Activation Γ Target Function\n\n"
func_names = list(exp4[activations[0]].keys())
report += "| Activation | " + " | ".join(func_names) + " |\n"
report += "|------------|" + "|".join(["------" for _ in func_names]) + "|\n"
for name in activations:
values = [f"{exp4[name][f]:.4f}" for f in func_names]
report += f"| {name} | " + " | ".join(values) + " |\n"
report += """
### Theoretical Explanation
**Universal Approximation Theorem**:
- Any continuous function can be approximated with enough neurons
- But different activations have different "inductive biases"
**ReLU excels at piecewise functions** (like |x|):
- ReLU networks compute piecewise linear functions
- Perfect match for |x| which is piecewise linear
**Smooth activations for smooth functions**:
- GELU, Swish produce smoother decision boundaries
- Better for smooth targets like sin(x)
**High-frequency functions are hard**:
- sin(10x) has 10 oscillations in [-2, 2]
- Requires many neurons to capture all oscillations
- All activations struggle without sufficient width
---
## Summary and Recommendations
### Comparison Table
| Property | Best Activations | Worst Activations |
|----------|------------------|-------------------|
| Gradient Flow | LeakyReLU, GELU | Sigmoid, Tanh |
| Avoids Dead Neurons | LeakyReLU, ELU, GELU | ReLU |
| Training Stability | Sigmoid, Tanh, GELU | ReLU (high lr) |
| Smooth Functions | GELU, Swish, Tanh | ReLU |
| Sharp Functions | ReLU, LeakyReLU | Sigmoid |
| Computational Speed | ReLU, LeakyReLU | GELU, Swish |
### Practical Recommendations
1. **Default Choice**: **ReLU** or **LeakyReLU**
- Simple, fast, effective for most tasks
- Use LeakyReLU if dead neurons are a concern
2. **For Transformers/Attention**: **GELU**
- Standard in BERT, GPT, modern transformers
- Smooth gradients help with optimization
3. **For Very Deep Networks**: **LeakyReLU** or **ELU**
- Or use residual connections + batch normalization
- Avoid Sigmoid/Tanh in hidden layers
4. **For Regression with Bounded Outputs**: **Sigmoid** (output layer only)
- Use for probabilities or [0, 1] outputs
- Never in hidden layers of deep networks
5. **For RNNs/LSTMs**: **Tanh** (traditional choice)
- Zero-centered helps with recurrent dynamics
- Modern alternative: use Transformers instead
### The Big Picture
```
ACTIVATION FUNCTION SELECTION GUIDE
βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
β Is it a hidden layer? β
βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
β
βββββββββββββββββ΄ββββββββββββββββ
βΌ βΌ
YES NO (output layer)
β β
βΌ βΌ
βββββββββββββββββββ βββββββββββββββββββββββ
β Is it a β β What's the task? β
β Transformer? β β β
βββββββββββββββββββ β Binary class β Sigmoid
β β Multi-class β Softmax
βββββββββ΄ββββββββ β Regression β Linear β
βΌ βΌ βββββββββββββββββββββββ
YES NO
β β
βΌ βΌ
GELU βββββββββββββββββββ
β Worried about β
β dead neurons? β
βββββββββββββββββββ
β
βββββββββ΄ββββββββ
βΌ βΌ
YES NO
β β
βΌ βΌ
LeakyReLU ReLU
or ELU
```
---
## Files Generated
| File | Description |
|------|-------------|
| exp1_gradient_flow.png | Gradient magnitude across layers |
| exp2_sparsity_dead_neurons.png | Sparsity and dead neuron rates |
| exp2_activation_distributions.png | Activation value distributions |
| exp3_stability.png | Stability vs learning rate and depth |
| exp4_representational_heatmap.png | MSE heatmap for different targets |
| exp4_predictions.png | Actual predictions vs ground truth |
| summary_figure.png | Comprehensive summary visualization |
---
## References
1. Glorot, X., & Bengio, Y. (2010). Understanding the difficulty of training deep feedforward neural networks.
2. He, K., et al. (2015). Delving deep into rectifiers: Surpassing human-level performance on ImageNet classification.
3. Hendrycks, D., & Gimpel, K. (2016). Gaussian Error Linear Units (GELUs).
4. Ramachandran, P., et al. (2017). Searching for Activation Functions.
5. Nwankpa, C., et al. (2018). Activation Functions: Comparison of trends in Practice and Research for Deep Learning.
---
*Tutorial generated by Orchestra Research Assistant*
*All experiments are reproducible with the provided code*
"""
with open('activation_functions/activation_tutorial.md', 'w') as f:
f.write(report)
print("\nβ Saved: activation_tutorial.md")
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
|