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This implicit trust in data means that evaluation may fail to detect whether high performance stems from exploiting biases or data quirks rather than learning relevant patterns. We present a novel data-related ablation as a complement to the traditional architectural ablation. Using this framework for Electroencephalography (EEG) signals of Emotional Recognition (ER) and Motor Execution (ME) as a case study, we show that seemingly high-accuracy models often rely heavily on process-irrelevant features, maintaining performance even when key information is eliminated. This shows that a standard, data-independent evaluation can be misleading about whether a model truly captured the intended process; the proposed approach helps distinguish robust learning from leaning on incidental characteristics. Therefore, incorporating data-related ablation is essential for developing reliable and generalizable DL models in fields that rely on data derived from complex and often not completely known phenomena.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1142\/s0129065726500061","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T07:59:12Z","timestamp":1769759952000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Data-related Ablation for Reinforcing Deep Learning in Explaining Complex Phenomena"],"prefix":"10.1142","volume":"36","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2939-3007","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Romeo","family":"Lanzino","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Salaria 113, Rome 00198, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9149-2175","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luigi","family":"Cinque","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Salaria 113, Rome 00198, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8425-6892","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gian Luca","family":"Foresti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics, University of Udine, Via delle Scienze, Udine 33100, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4790-4029","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giuseppe","family":"Placidi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"A2VI-Lab c\/o Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L\u2019Aquila, Via Vetoio Coppito, L\u2019Aquila 67100, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"219","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0129065726500061BIB001","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.aaa8415"},{"key":"S0129065726500061BIB002","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1142\/S0129065725500133"},{"key":"S0129065726500061BIB003","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1142\/S0129065725500376"},{"key":"S0129065726500061BIB004","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/exsy.12494"},{"key":"S0129065726500061BIB005","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1159\/000512985"},{"key":"S0129065726500061BIB006","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bbr.2015.10.036"},{"key":"S0129065726500061BIB007","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nature24270"},{"key":"S0129065726500061BIB008","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s42256-020-00257-z"},{"key":"S0129065726500061BIB009","first-page":"1","volume":"23","author":"D\u2019Amour A.","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. 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