Cognitive functions in a network, each comprising a learning module adapted to observe characteristics of the network and an inference module adapted to conclude, from the characteristics observed by the learning module, on a behavior of the network resulting from the observed characteristics, are controlled by halting and/or restarting operation of the learning module of a cognitive function of the cognitive functions, where operation of the inference module of the cognitive function is controlled independently from the halting and/or restarting the operation of the learning module of the cognitive function.