Comment on "Fastest learning in small-world neural networks"

This comment reexamines Simard et al.'s work in [D. Simard, L. Nadeau, H. Kroger, Phys. Lett. A 336 (2005) 8-15]. We found that Simard et al. calculated mistakenly the local connectivity lengths Dlocal of networks. The right results of Dlocal are presented and the supervised learning performance of feedforward neural networks (FNNs) with different rewirings are re-investigated in this comment. This comment discredits Simard et al's work by two conclusions: 1) Rewiring connections of FNNs cannot generate networks with small-world connectivity; 2) For different training sets, there do not exist networks with a certain number of rewirings generating reduced learning errors than networks with other numbers of rewiring.