journal article·2024-09-10Open access

Data Augmentation in Histopathological Classification: An Analysis Exploring GANs with XAI and Vision Transformers

Guilherme Botazzo Rozendo, Bianca Lançoni de Oliveira Garcia, Vinicius Augusto Toreli Borgue, Alessandra Lumini, Thaína Aparecida Azevedo Tosta, Marcelo Zanchetta do Nascimento, Leandro Alves Neves

Applied Sciences· Volume 14· Issue 18

Abstract

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) create images by pitting a generator (G) against a discriminator (D) network, aiming to find a balance between the networks. However, achieving this balance is difficult because G is trained based on just one value representing D’s prediction, and only D can access image features. We introduce a novel approach for training GANs using explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to enhance the quality and diversity of generated images in histopathological datasets. We leverage XAI to extract feature information from D and incorporate it into G via the loss function, a unique strategy not previously explored in this context. We demonstrate that this approach enriches the training with relevant information and promotes improved quality and more variability in the artificial images, decreasing the FID by up to 32.7% compared to traditional methods. In the data augmentation task, these images improve the classification accuracy of Transformer models by up to 3.81% compared to models without data augmentation and up to 3.01% compared to traditional GAN data augmentation. The Saliency method provides G with the most informative feature information. Overall, our work highlights the potential of XAI for enhancing GAN training and suggests avenues for further exploration in this field.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: AI in cancer detection · Generative Adversarial Networks and Image Synthesis · Cell Image Analysis Techniques

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Computer Science and Statistics (DCCE), São Paulo State University (UNESP), Rua Cristóvão Colombo, 2265, São José do Rio Preto 15054-000, SP, Brazil

Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DISI), University of Bologna, Via dell’ Università, 50, 47522 Cesena, Italy

Science and Technology Institute, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), Avenida Cesare Mansueto Giulio Lattes, 1201, São José dos Campos 12247-014, SP, Brazil

Faculty of Computer Science (FACOM), Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), Avenida João Naves de Ávila, 2121, Bl.B, Uberlândia 38400-902, MG, Brazil

Funding

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES) · National Council for Scientific and Technological Development CNPq · State of Minas Gerais Research Foundation—FAPEMIG · São Paulo Research Foundation—FAPESP

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