³⁵The term neural network is referring to a network or circuit of biological or artificial neurons. The concept is also used in neuroscience to make a link between observed biological processes (data), biologically plausible mechanisms for neural processing and learning (biological neural network models) and theory (statistical learning theory and information theory). Artificial neural networks are viewed as simplified models of neural processing in the brain; they have been applied successfully to speech recognition, image analysis, adaptive controls, to construct software agents and autonomous robots.