ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS - A PROSPECTIVE TOOL FOR THE ANALYSIS OF PSYCHIATRIC-DISORDERS

Artificial neural networks are computer simulations of biological para llel distributed processing systems, They are able to undertake comple x pattern recognition tasks, including diagnostic classification, pred iction of disease onset and prognosis, and identification of determina nts of clinical decisions, These capabilities have been utilized in ge neral medicine, but as yet there has been little application of artifi cial neural networks in psychiatric research, Artificial neural networ ks can also be used to create models of brain function, providing a pa radigm for cognition and the organization of neural systems that demon strates how changes at the cellular level can affect information proce ssing, These models are able to encompass both the biological and the behavioral dimensions of psychiatric disorders.