This review discusses how neuroimaging data can be represented as symmetric positive-definite (SPD) matrices and analyzed using the Riemannian geometry of the SPD manifold. It surveys the evolution from modality-specific SPD representations to geometric shallow and deep learning methods, emphasizing how these approaches maintain structural constraints while integrating modern AI techniques. The paper frames SPD matrix learning as a bridge between classical geometric statistics and contemporary machine learning in neuroimaging and brain‑computer interface research.
By Ce Ju, Reinmar Kobler, Antoine Collas, Motoaki Kawanabe, Cuntai Guan, Bertrand Thirion
arXiv:2604.22494v2 Announce Type: replace-cross
Abstract: We introduce two federated learning frameworks for the classical SPDnet model operating on symmetric positive definite (SPD) matrices with St...
By Thibault Pautrel, Florent Bouchard, Ammar Mian, Guillaume Ginolhac
arXiv:2607. 19305v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Deep neural networks on manifold-valued representations have attracted growing interest, but many basic components remain tied to specific manifolds, rely on Euclidean approximations, or require costly and numerically fragile geometric operations.
By Chen Ziheng
arXiv:2604. 20308v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Graph neural networks face two fundamental challenges rooted in the linear structure of Euclidean vector spaces: (1) Current architectures represent geometry through vectors (directions, gradients), yet many tasks require matrix-valued representations that capture relationships between directions-such as how atomic orientations covary in a molecule.
By Yuhan Peng, Junwen Dong, Yuzhi Zeng, Hao Li, Ce Ju, Huitao Feng, Diaaeldin Taha, Anna Wienhard, Kelin Xia
arXiv:2607. 19305v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Deep neural networks on manifold-valued representations have attracted growing interest, but many basic components remain tied to specific manifolds, rely on Euclidean approximations, or require costly and numerically fragile geometric operations.
By Chen Ziheng
The paper introduces a Nested Inductive Bias framework that uses a two‑stage diffeomorphic composition to pull back non‑Euclidean target geometries onto symmetric positive definite (SPD) manifolds. This approach allows the construction of curvature‑aligned Riemannian classifiers that respect both matrix constraints and the intrinsic relational geometry of data. Empirical results on kinematic, signal processing, and synthetic benchmarks show that class separability degrades when metric curvature does not match the data distribution, and the authors also propose the Rational Conformal Metric (RCM) for robust vectorized architectures.
By Tushar Das