tansig

Hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function

Syntax

A = tansig(N)

Description

Tip

To use a hyperbolic tangent activation for deep learning, use the tanhLayer function or the dlarray method tanh.

A = tansig(N) takes a matrix of net input vectors, N and returns the S-by-Q matrix, A, of the elements of N squashed into [-1 1].

tansig is a neural transfer function. Transfer functions calculate the output of a layer from its net input.

Examples

Create a Plot of the tansig Transfer Function

This example shows how to calculate and plot the hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function of an input matrix.

Create the input matrix, n. Then call the tansig function and plot the results.

n = -5:0.1:5;
a = tansig(n);
plot(n,a)

Assign this transfer function to layer i of a network.

net.layers{i}.transferFcn = 'tansig';

Input Arguments

N — Input matrix

matrix

Net input column vectors, specified as an S-by-Q matrix.

Output Arguments

A — Output matrix

matrix

Output vectors, returned as an S-by-Q matrix, where each element of N is squashed from the interval [-inf inf] to the interval [-1 1] with an "S-shaped" function.

Algorithms

a = tansig(n) = 2/(1+exp(-2*n))-1

This is mathematically equivalent to tanh(N). It differs in that it runs faster than the MATLAB implementation of tanh, but the results can have very small numerical differences. This function is a good tradeoff for neural networks, where speed is important and the exact shape of the transfer function is not.

References

[1] Vogl, T. P., et al. ‘Accelerating the Convergence of the Back-Propagation Method’. Biological Cybernetics, vol. 59, no. 4–5, Sept. 1988, pp. 257–63. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1007/BF00332914.