|
This volume of essays on neural networks and psychopathology is aimed
at an unusually diverse audience. On the one hand, we hope that the
volume will be read by psychiatrists, psychologists, and other clinicians
and researchers interested in psychopathology and its treatment. On the
other hand, we hope that it will be read by those who work in the ®elds of
cognitive science and arti®cial intelligence, and particularly those inter-
ested in neural network or connectionist models.
We believe that it is timely for clinicians and computational modellers
to be in closer contact.While recent decades have seen dramatic advances
in pharmacological and psychological treatments of psychiatric disor-
ders, clinical science often lacks an adequate theoretical framework for
integrating neurobiological and psychological data. Conversely, while
neural networks have been tremendously successful in modelling a
range of important psychological phenomena and in analysing data
from a wide range of other sciences, less work has focused on connec-
tionist models of psychopathology.
Research on connectionist models is one of the most exciting areas in cognitive science, and neural network models of psychopathology have immediate theoretical and empirical appeal. The contributors to this pioneering book review theoretical, historical and clinical issues, including the contribution of neural network models to diagnosis, pharmacotherapy, and psychotherapy. The text presents models for a range of disorders, including schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, disassociative phenomena, autism, and Alzheimer's disease. This volume will be read with interest by psychiatrists, psychologists and other clinicians and researchers in psychopathology. Additionally, it will appeal to those working in the fields of cognitive science and artificial intelligence, and particularly those interested in neural network or connectionist models. |
|