Non-Euclidean Contractivity of Recurrent Neural Networks

Critical questions in dynamical neuroscience and machine learning are related to the study of recurrent neural networks and their stability, robustness, and computational efficiency. These properties can be simultaneously established via a contraction analysis.This paper develops a comprehensive contraction theory for recurrent neural networks. First, for non-Euclidean ℓ 1 /ℓ ∞ logarithmic norms, we establish quasiconvexity with respect to positive diagonal weights and closed-form worst-case expressions over certain matrix polytopes. Second, for locally Lipschitz maps (e.g., arising as activation functions), we show that their one-sided Lipschitz constant equals the essential supremum of the logarithmic norm of their Jacobian. Third and final, we apply these general results to classes of recurrent neural circuits, including Hopfield, firing rate, Persidskii, Lur’e and other models. For each model, we compute the optimal contraction rate and corresponding weighted non-Euclidean norm via a linear program or, in some special cases, via a Hurwitz condition on the Metzler majorant of the synaptic matrix. Our non-Euclidean analysis establishes also absolute, connective, and total contraction properties.