On convergence properties of the brain-state-in-a-convex-domain.

Convergence in the presence of multiple equilibrium points is one of the most fundamental dynamical properties of a neural network (NN). Goal of the paper is to investigate convergence for the classic Brain-State-in-a-Box (BSB) NN model and some of its relevant generalizations named Brain-State-in-a-Convex-Body (BSCB). In particular, BSCB is a class of discrete-time NNs obtained by projecting a linear system onto a convex body of R. The main result in the paper is that the BSCB is convergent when the matrix of the linear system is symmetric and positive semidefinite or, otherwise, it is symmetric and the step size does not exceed a given bound depending only on the minimum eigenvalue of the matrix. This result generalizes previous results in the literature for BSB and BSCB and it gives a solid foundation for the use of BSCB as a content addressable memory (CAM). The result is proved via Lyapunov method and LaSalle's Invariance Principle for discrete-time systems and by using some fundamental inequalities enjoyed by the projection operator onto convex sets as Bourbaki-Cheney-Goldstein inequality.