Vitamin Information Center

Body Function
Synonyms
Physiological function
Definition
The physiological or psychological functions of a body
are defined as body functions. According to theWHO’s
International Classification of Functioning, Disability,
and Health (ICF), body functions are categorized into
different subfunctions. Mental functions, such as the
functions of the brain, can be differentiated into global
mental functions (consciousness, energy, drive) and
specific mental functions (memory, language, calculation).
Sensory functions include functions like seeing,
hearing, tasting, etc., as well as the sensation of pain.
Voice and speech functions produce sounds and speech.
There are functions of the cardiovascular system (heart
and blood vessels), the hematological and immunological
systems (blood production and immunity), and respiratory
systems (respiration and exercise tolerance),
as well as functions of the digestive system (ingestion,
digestion, and elimination), the metabolic system, and
the endocrine system. The genitourinary functions refer
to urination, and the reproductive functions include sexual
and procreative functions. The neuromusculoskeletal
and movement-related functions are responsible for
movement and mobility, and include the functions of
joints, bones, reflexes, and muscles. Finally, there are
the functions of the skin and related structures, like
nails and hair.

Artificial Neural Network
Synonyms
Neural network
Definition
An analytic modeling technique modeled after the
(hypothesized) processes of learning in the cognitive
system and the neurological functions of the brain.
It is capable of predicting new observations (on specific
variables) from other observations (on the same
or other variables) after executing a process of socalled
learning from existing data. Artificial neural networks
(ANN) are nonlinear and capable of modeling
extremely complex functions by creating connections
between processing elements – the computer equivalent
of neurons. For example, the onset of a particular
medical condition could be associated with a very
complex (e. g., nonlinear and interactive) combination
of changes on a subset of the variables being monitored
(e. g., a combination of heart rate, levels of various
substances in the blood, respiration rate). Neural
networks have been used to recognize this predictive
pattern so that the appropriate treatment can be prescribed.
A distinction can be made between two different
types of ANN– networks designed for supervised
learning tasks (e. g., Multilayer Perceptron, Bayesian
networks, Genetic algorithms) and networks primarily
designed for unsupervised learning (Self Organizing
Feature Map (SOFM, or Kohonen) networks).

Artificial Neural Network
Synonyms
Neural network
Definition
An analytic modeling technique modeled after the
(hypothesized) processes of learning in the cognitive
system and the neurological functions of the brain.
It is capable of predicting new observations (on specific
variables) from other observations (on the same
or other variables) after executing a process of socalled
learning from existing data. Artificial neural networks
(ANN) are nonlinear and capable of modeling
extremely complex functions by creating connections
between processing elements – the computer equivalent
of neurons. For example, the onset of a particular
medical condition could be associated with a very
complex (e. g., nonlinear and interactive) combination
of changes on a subset of the variables being monitored
(e. g., a combination of heart rate, levels of various
substances in the blood, respiration rate). Neural
networks have been used to recognize this predictive
pattern so that the appropriate treatment can be prescribed.
A distinction can be made between two different
types of ANN– networks designed for supervised
learning tasks (e. g., Multilayer Perceptron, Bayesian
networks, Genetic algorithms) and networks primarily
designed for unsupervised learning (Self Organizing
Feature Map (SOFM, or Kohonen) networks).