Artificial Neural Networks have captured the interest of many researchers in the last five years. As with many young fields, neural network research has been largely empirical in nature, relyingstrongly on simulationstudies ofvarious network models. Empiricism is, of course, essential to any science for it provides a body of observations allowing initial characterization of the field. Eventually, however, any maturing field must begin the process of validating empirically derived conjectures with rigorous mathematical models. It is in this way that science has always pro ceeded. It is in this...

Artificial Neural Networks have captured the interest of many researchers in the last five years. As with many young fields, neural network research has been largely empirical in nature, relyingstrongly on simulationstudies ofvarious network models. Empiricism is, of course, essential to any science for it provides a body of observations allowing initial characterization of the field. Eventually, however, any maturing field must begin the process of validating empirically derived conjectures with rigorous mathematical models. It is in this way that science has always pro- ceeded. It is in...