A comparison of neural network and Bayes recognition approaches in the evaluation of the brainstem trigeminal evoked potentials in multiple sclerosis

This article describes the application of Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Probabilistic Neural Network and Kohonen's Learning Vector Quantization to the problem of diagnosing Multiple Sclerosis. The classification information is obtained from brainstem trigeminal evoked potential. The performance of the neural networks based classifiers is compared with that of the human experts and the Bates classifier. The ability of the MLP classifier to generalize is far better than that of the Bayes classifier. The efficiency of the neural network based classifiers in conjunction with several types of well-known evoked potential features, such as Fourier transform space, latency and temporal wave, is examined. Although a large clinical database would be necessary before this approach can be fully validated, the initial results are promising.