Human selection bias drives the linear nature of the more ground truth effect in explainable deep learning optical coherence tomography image segmentation.

Journal: Journal of biophotonics
PMID:

Abstract

Supervised deep learning (DL) algorithms are highly dependent on training data for which human graders are assigned, for example, for optical coherence tomography (OCT) image annotation. Despite the tremendous success of DL, due to human judgment, these ground truth labels can be inaccurate and/or ambiguous and cause a human selection bias. We therefore investigated the impact of the size of the ground truth and variable numbers of graders on the predictive performance of the same DL architecture and repeated each experiment three times. The largest training dataset delivered a prediction performance close to that of human experts. All DL systems utilized were highly consistent. Nevertheless, the DL under-performers could not achieve any further autonomous improvement even after repeated training. Furthermore, a quantifiable linear relationship between ground truth ambiguity and the beneficial effect of having a larger amount of ground truth data was detected and marked as the more-ground-truth effect.

Authors

  • Peter M Maloca
    OCTlab, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Maximilian Pfau
    Department of Ophthalmology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany; GRADE Reading Center, Bonn, Germany; Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
  • Lucas Janeschitz-Kriegl
    Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), Basel, Switzerland.
  • Michael Reich
    Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Tel Aviv, Israel.
  • Lukas Goerdt
    Department of Ophthalmology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
  • Frank G Holz
    Department of Ophthalmology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
  • Philipp L Müller
    Universitäts-Augenklinik Bonn, Bonn, Deutschland.
  • Philippe Valmaggia
    Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), 4031, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Katrin Fasler
    NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
  • Pearse A Keane
    National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre for Ophthalmology, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
  • Javier Zarranz-Ventura
    Institut Clínic d'Oftalmologia, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
  • Sandrine Zweifel
    Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Jonas Wiesendanger
    Supercomputing Systems, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Pascal Kaiser
    Biotechnologie & Physik, Supercomputing Systems, Zürich, Switzerland.
  • Tim J Enz
    Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Simon P Rothenbuehler
    Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Pascal W Hasler
    OCTlab, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Marlene Juedes
    Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED), Pharmaceutical Sciences (PS), Roche, Innovation Center Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Christian Freichel
    Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED), Pharmaceutical Sciences (PS), Roche, Innovation Center Basel, 4070, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Catherine Egan
    NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
  • Adnan Tufail
    London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Adnan.Tufail@moorfields.nhs.uk.
  • Hendrik P N Scholl
    Department of Ophthalmology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Nora Denk
    Department of Ophthalmology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.