Deep Convolutional Neural Networks as Models of the Visual System: Q&A

Yes. First, artificial neural networks as whole were inspired--as their name suggests--by the emerging biology of neurons being developed in the mid-20th century. Artificial neurons were designed to mimic the basic characteristics of how neurons take in and transform information. Second, the main features and computations done by convolutional networks were directly inspired by some of the early findings about the visual system. In 1962 Hubel and Wiesel discovered that neurons in primary visual cortex respond to specific, simple features in the visual environment (particularly, oriented edges). Furthermore, they noticed two different kinds of cells: simple cells--which responded most strongly to their preferred orientation only at a very particular spatial location--and complex cells--which had more spatial invariance in their response.