The Kohonen self-organizing map method: An assessment

The “self-organizing map” method, due to Kohonen, is a well-known neural network method. It is closely related to cluster analysis (partitioning) and other methods of data analysis. In this article, we explore some of these close relationships. A number of properties of the technique are discussed. Comparisons with various methods of data analysis (principal components analysis, k-means clustering, and others) are presented. This work has been partially supported for M. Hernández-Pajares by the DGCICIT of Spain under grant No. PB90-0478 and by a CESCA-1993 computer-time grant. Fionn Murtagh is affiliated to the Astrophysics Division, Space Science Department, European Space Agency.