A Survey of Partially Connected Neural Networks

Almost all artificial neural networks are by default fully connected, which often implies a high redundancy and complexity. Little research has been devoted to the study of partially connected neural networks, despite its potential advantages like reduced training and recall time, improved generalization capabilities, reduced hardware requirements, as well as being a step closer to biological reality. This publication presents an extensive survey of the various kinds of partially connected neural networks, clustered into a clear framework, followed by a detailed comparative discussion.