TopoAlign: Topology-Aware Visual Representation Alignment

2026-05-25

AI Summary

This work addresses the limitations of existing representation alignment methods, which predominantly rely on geometric properties and struggle to capture the global structural organization of model representations. To overcome this, the study introduces topological data analysis into the field for the first time, proposing a Mapper-based visual analytics framework. By integrating force-directed layout, Bubble Sets, motif querying, and membrane-inspired heuristics, the framework enables a unified analytical pipeline spanning global structure alignment, local region matching, and fine-grained pattern exploration. Case studies on language and multimodal models, complemented by expert evaluations, demonstrate that the approach effectively reveals and compares the topological organization of representations across different models or layers, offering deep structural insights.

Abstract

Neural networks encode inputs as high-dimensional vectors, known as representations, that capture how models process data by encoding task-relevant structure and semantics. Representation alignment refers to the degree to which different models, layers, or training conditions produce similar representations for the same inputs, with important implications for model interpretation, selection, and robustness analysis. Existing approaches to measure alignment primarily rely on geometric properties, such as neighborhood and cluster similarity, offering limited insight into the global organization of representations. In this work, we present TopoAlign, a topology-aware framework for visually comparing model representations from a structural perspective. Leveraging mapper graphs from topological data analysis, TopoAlign jointly analyzes graphs constructed from representations of shared inputs across different models or layers. The framework supports a top-down comparative workflow: it first performs global structure alignment via joint force-directed optimization to produce coordinated graph layouts; it then identifies local correspondences through automated detection of structurally matching regions, visualized with Bubble Sets; and finally it enables fine-grained pattern inspection through motif-based queries and membrane-inspired visualizations. We demonstrate TopoAlign through case studies on language and multimodal models, complemented by expert feedback. Our results show that TopoAlign provides meaningful insights into representation structure and alignment from a topological perspective.

Problem

• representation alignment
• topological data analysis
• neural representations
• global structure
• model comparison

Innovation

• TopoAlign
• topological data analysis
• representation alignment
• Mapper graphs
• visual analytics