Most of this book is taken up by Part III, where 266 separately authored
articles cover a vast range of topics in brain theory and neural
networks, from language to motor control and from the neurochemistry of
memory to the applications of artificial neural networks in steel
making. Each article has been made as self-contained as possible, but
the very breadth of topics means that few readers will be expert in a
majority of them. To help the reader new to certain areas of the
Handbook, I have prepared Part I: Background and Part II: Road Maps.
This brief introductory section describes these aids to comprehension
and offers more information about the structure of articles in Part III.
Part I: Background
Part I provides background material for readers new to computational
neuroscience or theoretical approaches to neural networks considered as
dynamic, adaptive systems. Section I.l, "Introducing the Neuron,"
conveys the basic properties of biological neurons, introduces several
simple neural models, and provides pointers to the more detailed
analysis of biological neurons. Section I.2, "Levels and Styles of
Analysis," explains the interdisciplinary nexus in which the present
study of brain theory and neural networks is located, with historical
roots in cybernetics and with current work involving brain theory,
artificial intelligence, and cognitive psychology. We also review the
different levels of analysis involved, with schemas providing functional
units intermediate between an overall task and neural networks. Finally,
Section I.3, "Dynamics and Adaptation in Neural Networks," provides a
tutorial on the concepts essential for understanding neural networks as
dynamic, adaptive systems. We close by stressing that the full
understanding of the brain and the improved design of intelligent
machines will require not just improvements of the earning methods
presented in Section II.3, but also fuller understanding of
architectures based on networks of networks, with initial structures
well constrained for the task at hand.
Part II: Road Maps
The reader who wants to survey a major theme, rather than seeking articles in Part III one at a time, will find in Part II a set of 23 road maps which place each article in Part III in a thematic-perspective. Part II opens with a "Meta-Map" which briefly surveys all these themes, grouping them under eight general headings:
Connectionism: Psychology, Linguistics, and Artificial
Intelligence
This ordering of the themes has no special significance. It is simply one way to approach the richness of the Handbook, making it easy for the reader to identify one or two road maps of especial interest at a particular time. By the same token, the order of articles in each of the 23 road maps that follow the Meta-Map is one among many possible orderings. Each road map starts with an alphabetical listing of the articles most relevant to its theme. The road map itself will provide suggestions for Interesting traversals of articles, but this need not imply that an article provides necessary background for the articles it precedes.
Part III: Articles
The articles of Part III are arranged in alphabetical order by title, both to make it easier to find a specific topic (though a full subject index is provided as well) and because a given article may be relevant to more than one of the themes of Part II, a fact which would be hidden were the article to be relegated to a specific section devoted to a single theme. Most of these articles assume some prior familiarity with neural networks, whether biological or artificial, and so the reader is encouraged to master the material in Part I, especially Section I.3 on "Dynamics and Adaptation in Neural Networks," before tackling Part III.Most articles in Part III have the following structure: The introduction provides a nontechnical overview of the material covered in the whole article; the final section provides a discussion of key points, open questions, and linkages with other areas of brain theory and neural networks. The intervening sections may be more or less technical depending on the nature of the topic, but the first and last sections should give most readers a basic appreciation of the topic irrespective of such technicalities.
The bibliography for each article contains about 15 references. People who find their favorite papers omitted from the list should blame my editorial decision, not the author's judgment. The style I chose for the Handbook was not to provide exhaustive coverage of research papers for the expert. Rather, references are there primarily to help readers who look for an introduction to the literature on the given topic, including background material, relevant review articles, and original research citations. Expository and survey items in the references are marked with the symbol. In addition to formal references to the literature, each article contains numerous crossreferences to other articles in the Handbook. In the text, these take the form of THE TITLE OF THE ARTICLE IN SMALL CAPITALS; they may also appear at the end of the article designated as "Related Reading." In addition to suggestions for related reading, the reader will find, just prior to the list of references in each article, a mention of the road map(s) in which the article is discussed, as well as "Background" material which will usually come from Part I.
In summary: Turn directly to Part III when you need information on a specific topic. Read sections of Part I to gain a general perspective on the basic concepts of brain theory and neural networks. For an overview of a certain theme, read the Meta-Map in Part II to choose a road map; then read the road map to choose articles in Part III. A road map can also be used as an explicit guide for systematic study of the area under review. Then continue your exploration by further use of the road maps, by following cross-references in Part III, by looking up terms of interest in the index, or simply by letting serendipity take its course as you browse through Part III at random.