Selective Neuron Amplification for Training-Free Task Enhancement
arXiv cs.LG / 4/9/2026
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Key Points
- The paper argues that some LLM failures on tasks they “should” understand are caused by internal circuits not being sufficiently activated during inference rather than by missing knowledge.
- It introduces Selective Neuron Amplification (SNA), an inference-time technique that boosts task-relevant neuron influence without changing the model’s parameters.
- The authors report that SNA is most helpful when the model is uncertain and has limited benefit when the model is already confident.
- The results suggest a path for training-free performance improvements by manipulating activation strength rather than retraining or fine-tuning.
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