ANN - Introduction

The number of papers on applications of artificial neural networks (ANN) has grown exponentially during the nineties. Although the original hype about ANNs has settled, and a more realistic view of these methods has developed, there are still some issues connected to ANNs which are often overlooked (especially by those who are just users of the methods). Anderson summarized this situation by the pointed statement that

ANNs are often confused with the model of natural brains. This is particularly unsatisfactory since artificial neural networks exhibit no or only little similarity to natural biologic neural networks. Moreover, there are some speculations which indicate that biologic neural networks have a further aspect which is commonly overseen when dealing with artificial neural networks: several workers in the field have begun to think over some quantum effects which might occur in natural brains .