  Neural gas (NG) is a robust vector quantization algorithm with a well-known
mathematical model. According to this, the neural gas samples the underlying
data distribution following a power law with a magnification exponent that
depends on data dimensionality only. The effects of shape in the input data
distribution, however, are not entirely covered by the NG model above, due to
the technical difficulties involved. The experimental work described here shows
that shape is indeed relevant in determining the overall NG behavior; in
particular, some experiments reveal richer and complex behaviors induced by
shape that cannot be explained by the power law alone. Although a more
comprehensive analytical model remains to be defined, the evidence collected in
these experiments suggests that the NG algorithm has an interesting potential
for detecting complex shapes in noisy datasets.
