# What Colour is Neural Noise?

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.03704 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.03704/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 10 Jun 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [The Paradox of Noise: An Empirical Study of Noise-Infusion Mechanisms to Improve Generalization, Stability, and Privacy in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.05790/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Random noise plays a beneficial role in cognitive processing and produces measurable improvement in simulations and biological agents' task performance. Stochastic facilitation, the phenomenon of additive noise improving signal transmission in complex systems, has been shown to occur in a variety of neural contexts. However, neuroscience analyses to date have not fully explored the colours that neural noise could be. The literature shows a 1/f pink noise power spectrum distribution at many levels, but many less rigourous studies assume white noise, with little justification of why that assumption is made. In this work, we briefly review the colours of noise and their useful applications in other fields. If we consider that noise is not so black and white, we could more colourfully regularize artificial neural networks and re-investigate some surprising results about how the brain benefits from noise.