# FunnyNodules: A Customizable Medical Dataset Tailored for Evaluating Explainable AI

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.15481 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.15481/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 36 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 Nov 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Densely Connected Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06993/) (2016)
- [Deep Inside Convolutional Networks: Visualising Image Classification Models and Saliency Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1312.6034/) (2013)
- [Visualizing and Understanding Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1311.2901/) (2013)
- [A Survey on Deep Learning in Medical Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.05747/) (2017)
- [Concept Bottleneck Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.04612/) (2020)
- [This Looks Like That: Deep Learning for Interpretable Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.10574/) (2018)
- [CheXbert: Combining Automatic Labelers and Expert Annotations for Accurate Radiology Report Labeling Using BERT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.09167/) (2020)
- [From Anecdotal Evidence to Quantitative Evaluation Methods: A Systematic Review on Evaluating Explainable AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.08164/) (2022)
- [Brain Imaging Generation with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.07162/) (2022)
- [GAN-based Synthetic Medical Image Augmentation for increased CNN Performance in Liver Lesion Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.01229/) (2018)
- [Interpretable Counterfactual Explanations Guided by Prototypes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.02584/) (2019)
- [Towards Human-centered Explainable AI: A Survey of User Studies for Model Explanations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.11584/) (2022)
- [This Looks Like That, Because ... Explaining Prototypes for Interpretable Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.02863/) (2020)
- [FunnyBirds: A Synthetic Vision Dataset for a Part-Based Analysis of Explainable AI Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.06248/) (2023)
- [Synthetically Enhanced: Unveiling Synthetic Data's Potential in Medical Imaging Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.09402/) (2023)
- [Explaining Explainability: Recommendations for Effective Use of Concept Activation Vectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03713/) (2024)
- [CIRDataset: A large-scale Dataset for Clinically-Interpretable lung nodule Radiomics and malignancy prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.14903/) (2022)
- [Interpretable Medical Image Classification using Prototype Learning and Privileged Information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.15741/) (2023)
- [Evaluating the Explainability of Attributes and Prototypes for a Medical Classification Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09917/) (2024)
- [Hierarchical Vision Transformer with Prototypes for Interpretable Medical Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.08997/) (2025)
- [Minimum Data, Maximum Impact: 20 annotated samples for explainable lung nodule classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00639/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Improving Fairness of Large Language Model-Based ICU Mortality Prediction via Case-Based Prompting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.19735/) (2025)
- [Local Label-Informed Feature Transfer for Generating Ground-Truth Medical Images: A Comparison of GAN- and Diffusion-Based Approaches](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.18882/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Densely annotated medical image datasets that capture not only diagnostic labels but also the underlying reasoning behind these diagnoses are scarce. Such reasoning-related annotations are essential for developing and evaluating explainable AI (xAI) models that reason similarly to radiologists: making correct predictions for the right reasons. To address this gap, we introduce FunnyNodules, a fully parameterized synthetic dataset designed for systematic analysis of attribute-based reasoning in medical AI models. The dataset generates abstract, lung nodule-like shapes with controllable visual attributes such as roundness, margin sharpness, and spiculation. The target class is derived from a predefined attribute combination, allowing full control over the decision rule that links attributes to the diagnostic class. We demonstrate how FunnyNodules can be used in model-agnostic evaluations to assess whether models learn correct attribute-target relations, to interpret over- or underperformance in attribute prediction, and to analyze attention alignment with attribute-specific regions of interest. The framework is fully customizable, supporting variations in dataset complexity, target definitions, class balance, and beyond. With complete ground truth information, FunnyNodules provides a versatile foundation for developing, benchmarking, and conducting in-depth analyses of explainable AI methods in medical image analysis.