The Control Theory Approach to Biological Neural Networks

Abstract

An exact definition of the concept of “automation” in the broad sense does not exist. This term is usually defined as an apparatus with the ability to work without human intervention. The creation of calculating and regulating automatons has quite a long history (see Baev and Shimansky 1992). The idea of digital apparatus construction was elaborated as far back as the eighteenth century by Pascal and Leibniz. The first works on control system theory appeared in the nineteenth century. In Maxwell’s works, in particular, the behavior of systems incorporating feedback was analyzed. But it is usual to consider 1948 as the beginning of control theory development, when the American scientist Norbert Wiener’s Cybernetics; or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine was published (see Wiener 1961).