On the biological formal counterparts of logical machines

Abstract

The significance of the McCulloch‐Pitts formal neural net theory is still nowadays frequently misunderstood at present, and their basic units are wrongly considered as factual models for neurons. As a consequence, the whole original theory and its later addenda are unreasonably criticized for their simplicity. But, as it was proved then and since, the theory is after the modular neurophysiological counterpart of logical machines, so that it actually provides biologically plausible models for automata, Turing Machines etc and not viceversa. In its true context, no theory has surpassed its proposals. In McCulloch and Pitts Memoriam and for the sake of future theoretical research, we stress this important historical point, including also some recent results on the neurophysiological counterparts of modular arbitrary probabilistic automata.