The Mind within the Net: Models of Learning, Thinking, and Acting

A highly readable, non-mathematical introduction to neural networks--computer models that help us to understand how we perceive, think, feel, and act.

How does the brain work? How do billions of neurons bring about ideas, sensations, emotions, and actions? Why do children learn faster than elderly people? What can go wrong in perception, thinking, learning, and acting? Scientists now use computer models to help us to understand the most private and human experiences. In The Mind Within the Net, Manfred Spitzer shows how these models can fundamentally change how we think about learning, creativity, thinking, and acting, as well as such matters as schools, retirement homes, politics, and mental disorders.

Neurophysiology has told us a lot about how neurons work; neural network theory is about how neurons work together to process information. In this highly readable book, Spitzer provides a basic, nonmathematical introduction to neural networks and their clinical applications. Part I explains the fundamental theory of neural networks and how neural network models work. Part II covers the principles of network functioning and how computer simulations of neural networks have profound consequences for our understanding of how the brain works. Part III covers applications of network models (e.g., to knowledge representation, language, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease) that shed new light on normal and abnormal states of mind. Finally, Spitzer concludes with his thoughts on the ramifications of neural networks for the understanding of neuropsychology and human nature.

Is your brain like your computer? Well, (hopefully) it doesn't crash as often, and that's just one of many on the long list of differences. But psychiatrist Manfred Spitzer says neuroscientists have much to learn from the alternative computing architectures called neural nets. His book The Mind Within the Net is a look at biological and electronic networks, their similarities, and what each can tell us about the other, with a particular emphasis on his own field. We've known for decades how individual neurons work. It's taken recent advances in neural computing to help us learn how brain systems might take advantage of their unique dynamics to help us see, walk, and keep the trains running on time.

Covering the basics of both neuroscience and neural computing with a user-friendly, but not oversimplified, prose style, Spitzer then moves on to the often striking similarities in function between simple electronic networks and mechanisms within the brain. Keeping in mind the importance of recognizing models as such, he takes pains to point out that there are some aspects of computing for which there is little comparison to biological systems. However, the similarities between different network degradations and such diverse problems as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and depression are compelling and potentially important. It's not often that we get a new batch of metaphors to help us understand ourselves; this may be the paradigm shift we've been waiting for. --Rob Lightner