# A Dual-Attention Graph Network for fMRI Data Classification

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.13328 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.13328/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 12 of its 30 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 Aug 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Graph Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10903/) (2017)
- [Graph Neural Networks: A Review of Methods and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.08434/) (2018)
- [Transformers in Time Series: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.07125/) (2022)
- [Time Series Forecasting With Deep Learning: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.13408/) (2020)
- [Learning Dynamic Graph Representation of Brain Connectome with Spatio-Temporal Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.13495/) (2021)
- [Brain Networks and Intelligence: A Graph Neural Network Based Approach to Resting State fMRI Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.03520/) (2023)
- [DynDepNet: Learning Time-Varying Dependency Structures from fMRI Data via Dynamic Graph Structure Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.13513/) (2022)
- [Spatio-Temporal Encoding of Brain Dynamics with Surface Masked Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.05474/) (2023)
- [Transformer and Snowball Graph Convolution Learning for Brain functional network Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.16132/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Understanding the complex neural activity dynamics is crucial for the development of the field of neuroscience. Although current functional MRI classification approaches tend to be based on static functional connectivity or cannot capture spatio-temporal relationships comprehensively, we present a new framework that leverages dynamic graph creation and spatiotemporal attention mechanisms for Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD) diagnosis. The approach used in this research dynamically infers functional brain connectivity in each time interval using transformer-based attention mechanisms, enabling the model to selectively focus on crucial brain regions and time segments. By constructing time-varying graphs that are then processed with Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) and transformers, our method successfully captures both localized interactions and global temporal dependencies. Evaluated on the subset of ABIDE dataset, our model achieves 63.2 accuracy and 60.0 AUC, outperforming static graph-based approaches (e.g., GCN:51.8). This validates the efficacy of joint modeling of dynamic connectivity and spatio-temporal context for fMRI classification. The core novelty arises from (1) attention-driven dynamic graph creation that learns temporal brain region interactions and (2) hierarchical spatio-temporal feature fusion through GCNtransformer fusion.