System for analysis of BAEP signals using neural networks

The Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potentials (BAEP) are signals calculated from the EEG signals registered as responses to an acoustic activation of the auditory system. The BAEP signals provide an objective, electrophysiological diagnostic method, widely applied in examinations of auditory organs, in particular for such cases, when the application of traditional audiometric methods is difficult or impossible, e.g. in examination of little children and infants. The shape of the time-dependent signal, and its possible distortion, and particularly the presence or absence of characteristic waves are of great diagnostic importance. In the present work methods of preliminary processing and automated identification of wave V are presented, using the SOM type neural networks for determination of structure of the feature space and classification.