| Hopfield | Mammalian Brain/CAs | |
| Connections | Bidirectional | Unidirectional |
| Connectivity | Well Connected | Sparsely Connected and Distance Biased |
| Fatigue | None | Fatiguing |
| Decay | No Activity Retained | Activity Leaks Away |
| Threshold | Positive or Negative | Positive(Constant in CAs) |
| Gray's Law | Neurons can have positive and negative synapses | Synapses from a neuron are either all positive or all negative |
| Energy Function | Calculable | Open Question |
| Learning | Various | Hebbian and Open Question |