Oh the memories :-) That article is from about 1990. At that time it was widely referenced in neural network research. I also used it as a reference in my masters thesis in 1993.

Edit: Changed year..

It happens in human brains too. Neuron pruning has positive effects on intelligence. http://develintel.blogspot.com/2006/03/overgrowth-pruning-an...

That's interesting. I wonder how easy (or necessary) it would be to apply this to a self-training (self-motivated) network.

only yann can do it !