Artificial Neural Nets

[Daniel Rabinovitch]

I am an undergraduate in Computer Science, intending to
go to graduate school in that field, when I suddenly realized
that I would rather study nature (perform Science) than
the artifacts of mankind (perform Engineering).  

I am wondering to what extent the neurobiology/psychology
communities (as opposed to comp sci/ ee) view the study
of Artificial Neural Nets as useful way to study neural
functionality.  That is, are artificial neural network interesting
from a scientific perspective, or only that of an engineer?

With Much Thanks,

Dan Rabinovitch