Deep networks are effective encoders of periodicity.

We present a comparative theoretical analysis of representation in artificial neural networks with two extreme architectures, a shallow wide network and a deep narrow network, devised to maximally decouple their representative power due to layer width and network depth. We show that, given a specific activation function, models with comparable VC-dimension are required to guarantee zero error modeling of real functions over a binary input. However, functions that exhibit repeating patterns can be encoded much more efficiently in the deep representation, resulting in significant reduction in complexity. This paper provides some initial theoretical evidence of when and how depth can be extremely effective.