Artificial Neural Networks :: Essays Papers

Artificial Neural Networks Artificial neural networks are systems implemented on computer systems as specialized hardware or sophisticated software that loosely model the learning and remembering functions of the human brain. They are an attempt to simulate the multiple layers of processing elements in the brain, called neurons. These elements are implemented in such a way so that the layers can learn from prior experience and remember their outputs. In this way, the system can learn to recognize certain patterns and situations and apply these to certain priorities and output appropriate results. These types of neural networks can be used in many important situations such as priority in an emergency room, for financial assistance, and any type of pattern recognition such as handwritten or text-to-speech recognition. The most basic elements of a neural network, the artificial neurons, are modeled after the neurons of the brain. The "real" neuron is composed of four parts: the dendrites, soma, axon, and the synapse. The dendrites receive input from other neuron's synapses, the soma processes the information received, the axon carries the action potential which fires the neuron when a threshold is breached, and the synapse is where the neuron sends its output, which are in the form of neurotransmitters, to the dendrites of other neurons. Each neuron in the human brain can connect with up to 200,000 other neurons. The power and processing of the human brain comes from multitude of these basic components and the many thousands of connections between them. The artificial neurons simulate the four basic functions of the "real" neuron. The artificial neuron is much simpler than the neuron of the brain. It takes inputs just as the "real" neuron but also multiplies these inputs by a weight value. Then they are sent to a processing unit which does what it needs to do to the value and then sends this value to the output path. In the simplest case the products of these values are simply summed and then put through a transfer process and output. This is the basic building block of all artificial neural networks, although there are many different implementations of this simple block and fundamental differences which allow for different artificial networks to be built. The major concerns of the developer is the design of the neural network system.