Degree-Conscious Spiking Graph for Cross-Domain Adaptation
Yingxu Wang, Mengzhu Wang, Houcheng Su, Nan Yin, Quanming Yao, James Kwok

TL;DR
This paper introduces DeSGraDA, a novel degree-aware spiking graph framework for cross-domain adaptation that improves generalization and energy efficiency in graph classification tasks.
Contribution
The paper proposes a new framework for SGNs that incorporates degree-aware encoding, adversarial domain alignment, and pseudo-labeling, along with the first generalization bound for SGDA.
Findings
DeSGraDA outperforms state-of-the-art methods in accuracy.
DeSGraDA enhances energy efficiency in graph classification.
Theoretical generalization bounds are established for SGDA.
Abstract
Spiking Graph Networks (SGNs) have demonstrated significant potential in graph classification by emulating brain-inspired neural dynamics to achieve energy-efficient computation. However, existing SGNs are generally constrained to in-distribution scenarios and struggle with distribution shifts. In this paper, we first propose the domain adaptation problem in SGNs, and introduce a novel framework named Degree-Consicious Spiking Graph for Cross-Domain Adaptation (DeSGraDA). DeSGraDA enhances generalization across domains with three key components. First, we introduce the degree-conscious spiking representation module by adapting spike thresholds based on node degrees, enabling more expressive and structure-aware signal encoding. Then, we perform temporal distribution alignment by adversarially matching membrane potentials between domains, ensuring effective performance under domain shift…
Peer Reviews
Decision·Submitted to ICLR 2026
- This paper formally defines and proposes a novel framework for addressing SGDA, and introduces a biologically inspired degree-conscious mechanism that bridges the gap between spiking neural networks and graph learning. - The proposed framework integrates three complementary modules: degree-conscious spiking representation, temporal distribution alignment, and pseudo-label distillation, supported by a derived generalization bound. This combination ensures both theoretical rigor and practical ro
- The discussion of related work should include more recent DA methods or frameworks, such as [1,2], to better position this study within the current research landscape. - In Section 4.3, the paper introduces a clustering-based approach for pseudo-label generation but does not specify which clustering algorithm is used or how DeSGraDA identifies the dominant pseudo-labels within each cluster. - In Section 5.3, the ablation study appears incomplete, as it only evaluates the impact of removing ind
- Degree is a central information in graph. Using this is a rational choice - Experimental comparison is made for a number of baselines - Meaningful improvements.
**Narrow scope** - Domain adaptation + spiking NN seems to have a narrow scope, and its practicality should be better motivated. **Unclear platform** - The reviewer is not sure whether this work is being proposed as 1) a better alternative for existing algorithms (that typically run on GPUs), 2) a method that would run on spiking (neuromorphic) hardware, or 3) a hybrid platform that uses neuromorphic+traditional digital hardware, 4) or something else. I was thinking of 2) at first, but the way
1. Strong average performance across diverse benchmarks. In Table 1 (p. 8), S2GCL outperforms prior SNN‑GCL (e.g., SPIKEGCL) and supervised/unsupervised GNN baselines on all six datasets. 2. SaMP is easy to plug in. The learnable projection that maps eigenvalue features to initial membrane potential is simple and compatible with standard message‑passing layers and LIF neurons.
1. Time‑step dependence of SaMP is not analyzed. SaMP only changes the initial membrane potential. Thus, as T grows and multiple integrate‑fire‑reset cycles occur, SaMP’s effect may diminish. The paper studies T vs. accuracy and runtime globally (Fig. 4) but does not isolate how SaMP’s contribution scales with T. 2. Ablation granularity is limited. Figure 3 ablates SaMP, OCG, and channel contrast, but it does not specify the time‑step T, window w, or stride used for those ablations; nor does it
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Taxonomy
TopicsAdvanced Memory and Neural Computing
