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Does the brain function like a computer?
To distinguish the specific characteristics of neural networks, it is helpful to compare the operational mode of conventional computers with that of the human brain. As previously mentioned, the predominant visual conception of the brain is that of a computer.
The processes in the brain and in a computer, however, are marked by several important distinctions:
- The computer is only able to deal with a limited number of information units at any given time, while the brain can process more than a billion information units simultaneously (highly parallel data processing).
- The brain mostly processes data in an analogue fashion, whereas the conventional computer can only process digital data; all the information thus has to be converted into a code of 0 or 1.
- The brain is then also much better equipped to recognise a picture than a computer when individual parts of the image are missing or erroneous.
- With a conventional computer, data processing and data storage are spatially divided so that the data always has to be shifted back and forth in the operating procedure. In the brain, however, information processing and storage are very closely linked; the site where data processing occurs can also be where data is stored.
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