“We proposed definitions and theorems regarding Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs), which allow estimating bounds for the activation value of each neuron and analyzing the covering and proximity of feasible activation spaces. The main theoretical findings suggest that the state space of any FCM model equipped with transfer F-functions shrinks infinitely with no guarantee for the FCM to converge to a fixed point but to its limit state space. This result, in conjunction with the covering and proximity values of FCM-based models, helps to understand their poor performance when solving complex simulation problems.”

“We have proposed a hybrid Fuzzy Cognitive Map-based model that incorporates static expert knowledge and information automatically inferred from the data. The paper introduces a fast and deterministic algorithm to construct such a model and a post-optimization procedure to fine-tune the resulting architecture. Simulations showed the superiority of our proposal in problems devoted to modeling complex systems.”