REHABILITATION OF DEAF CHILDREN AFTER COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION USING AN INTELLIGENT NEURAL NET SYSTEM

The most effective method of rehabilitation in the cases of stage 4 sensorineural hearing loss and deafness is cochlea implantation. During rehabilitation, tuning up of cochlear implant system is needed for proper functioning of the elaborate electronic device substituting for the sensory organ. The aim of the present study was to develop an algorithm for the analysis of telemetry data about neural responses in order to determine the most comfortable levels of cochlear implant stimulation required to tune up the speech processor. Materials and methods. Study group comprised 90 patients divided into two groups. Group 1 (85% of the patients) was used to train the neural net. Group 2 patients (15%) were not involved in training and were used as a reference group to evaluate the effectiveness of neural net operation after training. Results. After the completion of training of 80 neural nets, the best one was chosen. The proportion of correct prognoses with it was 99,2%. Conclusions. The use of the neural-net expert system provides for performing important tasks, such as optimizing the parameters of speech processor tuning-up for an individual patient and increasing the effectiveness of rehabilitation of patients with complex pathology. Of special relevance is the use of neural nets to analyze telemetry data about neural responses in infantile and early-age patients with anomalies of middle-air development after meningitis and in patients with complex defects.

cochlear implantation, speech processor tuning-up, sensorineural hearing loss, deafness, telemetry of neural responses, maximally comfortable levels, auditory evoked potentials, stapedial reflexes, objective research methods, neural nets, rehabilitation