Latency estimation of auditory brainstem response by neural networks

In the clinical application of auditory brainstem responses (ABRs), the latencies of five to seven main peaks are extremely important parameters for diagnosis. In practice, the latencies have mainly been done by manual measurement so far. In recent years, some new techniques have been developed involving automatic computer recognition. Computer recognition is difficult, however, since some peaks are complicated and vary a lot individually. In this paper, we introduce an artificial neural network method for ABR research. The detection of ABR is performed by using artificial neural networks. A proper bandpass filter is designed for peak extraction. Moreover, a new approach to estimate the latencies of the peaks by artificial neural networks is presented. The neural networks are studied in relation to the selection of model, number of layers and number of neurons in each hidden layer. Experimental results are described showing that artificial neural networks are a promising method in the study of ABR. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.