# Hopfield Network **Domain:** Neural Networks / Associative Memory **Doc Type:** Technical Architecture Node **Maturity:** Foundational ## Definition A **Hopfield network** is a recurrent network whose dynamics settle toward stored patterns, allowing content-addressable [[wiki/Associative Memory|associative memory]] and pattern completion. ## Historical Context The architecture is conventionally associated with John Hopfield's 1982 work. [[wiki/Shun-Ichi Amari|Shun-Ichi Amari]] has observed that the recurrent associative-memory model he published in 1972 had the same essential structure. ## Provenance Context The node preserves both the later canonical name and the earlier published lineage without collapsing historical credit into a single inventor. ## See Also [[wiki/Recurrent Neural Network|Recurrent Neural Network]], [[wiki/Distributed Representation|Distributed Representation]], [[wiki/Credit Assignment|Credit Assignment]]