Statistical physics, neural networks, brain studies

An overview of some aspects of a vast domain, located at the crossroads of physics, biology and computer science is presented: 1) During the last fifteen years, physicists advancing along various pathways have come into contact with biology (computational neurosciences) and engineering (formal neural nets). 2) This move may actually be viewed as one component in a larger picture. A prominent trend of recent years, observable over many countries, has been the establishment of interdisciplinary centers devoted to the study of: cognitive sciences; natural and artificial intelligence; brain, mind and behaviour; perception and action; learning and memory; robotics; man-machine communication, etc. What are the promising lines of development? What opportunities for physicists? An attempt will be made to address such questions, and related issues.