The Neural Networks Revolution

People have been fascinated with the inner workings of the brain for thousands of years. The first records can be traced back to a 1700 BC Egyptian papyrus, which reports the medical information of a person with a severe head injury. In Ancient Greece, Alcmaeon concluded that the brain is the organ that rules the body rather than the heart (as people thought back then) and that it also serves as the store for memories and thoughts. Furthermore, he also linked the eyes to vision processing inside the brain. Herophilus and Erasistratus of Alexandria even went a step further by distinguishing between the different components of the brain. During the Roman Empire, the Greek philosopher Galen started associating functions with the different brain parts and theorized about the function of the spinal cord. Around 1000 AD, Al-Zahrwai, the father of modern surgery, delved deeper into the inner workings of the brain. He evaluated neurological patients and treated...