Book Summary of An Introduction To Neural Networks
An Introduction to Neural Networks falls into a new ecological niche for texts. Based on notes that have been class-tested for more than a decade, it is aimed at cognitive science and neuroscience students who need to understand brain function in terms of computational modeling and at engineers who want to go beyond formal algorithms to applications and computing strategies. It is the only current text to approach networks from a broad neuroscience and cognitive science perspective, with an emphasis on the biology and psychology behind the assumptions of the models, as well as on what the models might be used for. It describes the mathematical and computational tools needed and provides an account of the author’s own ideas.
Key Features
• Emphasizes not so much on the formal analysis of network algorithms as on the use of algorithms.
• Devotes some effort to describe the biological represent-ration of data by giving some examples of biological and cognitive computation using neural networks.
• The beginning of the book contains programs for some computer modeling experiments to enable students to play with algorithms and theories.
• Provides fragments of code, useful Pascal procedures and functions, and describes results from networks modeling programs, throughout the text.
• The After word tells how to obtain the complete programs, datasets and further details about the operation and design of the programs.
Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Acknowledgments
• Properties of Single Neurons
• Synaptic Integration and Neuron Models
• Essential Vector Operations
• Lateral Inhibition and Sensory Processing
• Simple Matrix Operations
• The Linear Associator: Background and Foundations
• The Linear Associator: Simulations
• Early Network Models: The Perceptron
• Gradient Descent Algorithms
• Representation of Information
• Applications of Simple Associators: Concept Formation and Object Motion
• Energy and Neural Networks: Hopfield Networks and Boltzmann
• Machines
• Nearest Neighbor Models
• Adaptive Maps
• The BSB Model: A Simple Nonlinear Auto-associative Neural Network
• Associative Computation
• Teaching Arithmetic to a Neural Network
• After word
• Index
