arXiv AI

Unraveling the cognitive patterns of Large Language Models through module communities

The paper presents a network-based framework that links cognitive skills, LLM architectures, and datasets to uncover the cognitive patterns of Large Language Models. It identifies module communities within LLMs that exhibit skill distributions partially mirroring distributed cognitive organization seen in avian and small mammalian brains, yet distinct from the focalized specialization of specific biological systems. The study highlights that LLM skill acquisition benefits from dynamic, cross-regional interactions and neural plasticity, suggesting fine-tuning should leverage distributed learning dynamics rather than rigid modular interventions.

arXiv AI
Aug 17

Modular Cognitive Architecture Emerges in Large Language Models

arXiv:2608. 13567v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The human brain exhibits a striking degree of functional specialization, with distinct networks supporting language, formal reasoning, reasoning about other minds, and reasoning about the physical world.

By Pengrui Han, Jacob Andreas, Evelina Fedorenko, Andrea Gregor de Varda
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 4

Language-encoded network topology enables large language models to reason about complex networks

The paper introduces BioGlyph, a method that translates network topology into a language of structural roles such as hubs, community cores, and cross-community connectors. By encoding these roles in a universal, interpretable vocabulary, BioGlyph allows large language models to answer structural reasoning questions about networks more accurately—improving system accuracy by up to 26 percentage points compared to edge-based or numerical representations. Experiments across twenty networks in five domains show the approach is especially effective for dense, community-structured networks and reveals biologically meaningful patterns in a budding-yeast protein-interaction network.

By Ucchwas Talukder Utsha, Sakib Mostafa, James Zou, Md Tauhidul Islam
arXiv AI
Jul 2

NeuroCogMap Reveals Cognitive Organization of Large Language Models

arXiv:2607. 00397v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Understanding how complex cognitive functions are organized within artificial systems is central to interpreting large language models (LLMs) and relating them to biological cognition.

By Zhongxiang Sun, Haolang Lu, Qiang Ma, Qi Li, Qipeng Wang, Liang Pang, Chenyu Liu, Qiankun Li, Hao Sun, Kun Wang, Yi Zeng, Jun Xu, Guoqi Li, Ji-Rong Wen
arXiv Computation and Language
4d ago

Cognitive Expert Language Models Better Align with the Corresponding Brain Systems

The study investigates whether language models tailored to specific cognitive domains better align with corresponding brain systems. By prompting and fine‑tuning large language models into six domain experts—sensory, spatial, numerical, reasoning, social, and abstract—the authors find that each expert’s representations more closely match the brain region associated with its domain than other experts. This domain‑specific alignment holds across multiple base models and fMRI datasets, while overall prediction accuracy remains largely unchanged, indicating that regional alignment can be obscured when summarizing across the brain.

By Zhivar Sourati, Mengxuan Helen Wu, Nona Ghazizadeh, Jonas Kaplan, Morteza Dehghani, Samuel A. Nastase
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 27

Emergent Abilities in Large Language Models: A Survey

Emergent Abilities in Large Language Models: A Survey reviews how scaling LLMs leads to previously unseen capabilities such as advanced reasoning, in-context learning, coding, and problem-solving. The paper critically examines definitions, inconsistencies, and the conditions that foster these abilities, including scaling laws, task complexity, pre‑training loss, quantization, and prompting strategies. It also discusses the extension to Large Reasoning Models and highlights safety concerns like deception, manipulation, and reward hacking, calling for improved evaluation and governance.

By Leonardo Berti, Flavio Giorgi, Gjergji Kasneci
arXiv AI
Aug 14

From Observation to Intervention: Memory in Brains and Large Language Models

arXiv:2608. 12377v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Brains and large language models (LLMs) are fundamentally different memory systems, but they can be compared through shared functional questions: where memory-related information is represented, how partial cues recover broader associations, how new information is written or updated, and how memory-related states can be perturbed.

By Morteza Salehjahromi, Shayan A. Zadegan, Amgad Muneer, Jia Wu