WO2019146809A1 - Apparatus and method for diagnosing tinnitus using classifier - Google Patents

Abstract

A tinnitus diagnosing apparatus, according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises: a stimulation tone generation unit for generating a first stimulation tone, which comprises a first background noise and a pulse noise, and a plurality of second stimulation tones, wherein each of the second stimulation tones has a different duration of a silent gap and comprises a pulse noise generated while a third background noise continues after a second background noise has ended and then a silent gap is kept for a predetermined duration; an auditory evoked potential measuring unit for measuring a first waveform of auditory evoked potential of an examinee according to the first stimulation tone, and a plurality of second waveforms of the auditory evoked potential of the examinee according to the plurality of second stimulation tones; an amplitude and gap pre-pulse inhibition (GPI) calculation unit for measuring a plurality of GPI ratios, which are ratios between a peak-to-peak amplitude of the first waveform and a peak-to-peak amplitude of the respective second waveforms; and a classifier, in which reference GPI ratios measured from a plurality of patients suffering from tinnitus and a normal group are pre-stored, for diagnosing whether the examinee is afflicted with tinnitus on the basis of the reference GPI ratios by receiving input of a plurality of GPI ratios measured from the examinee.

Description

Tinnitus test apparatus and method using classifier

The present invention relates to a tinnitus test apparatus and method using a classifier, and more particularly, to a tinnitus test apparatus and method for testing whether a subject is aliased by inputting auditory evoked potential (AEP) measured by a subject into a classifier .

Tinnitus is a subjective feeling of noise heard in the ear. In other words, it feels that sound is heard in a situation where there is no auditory stimulation from the outside. In a totally insulated quiet room, about 95% of ordinary people feel less than 20 dB of tinnitus, but this is not clinically a tinnitus, and it is called tinnitus that you may notice noise or noise that annoys you.

Symptoms of this tinnitus include moderate to severe tinnitus (8%) and severe tinnitus (1%). Patients who complain of tinnitus feel various noises from their ears or head, and if they are severe, they will suffer from everyday life. Although the frequency of external noise exposure increases in modern society, tinnitus patients are increasingly recognized as an incurable disease. For these reasons, there is a growing demand for accurate diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus.

 The conventional tinnitogram used in humans has a merit that it is relatively easy and simple to diagnose the presence or absence of tinnitus as a subjective test method. However, there is a problem in accurately diagnosing the elderly elderly or infants with tinnitus who are not able to understand the test procedure or expressiveness because it is a subjective test that relies on the cooperation of the subject with the stimulus sound. In addition, if the victim's economic compensation is related to external noise exposure or accident, it is necessary to make an objective judgment about the presence of tinnitus.

A problem to be solved in the embodiment of the present invention is to provide a technique for checking whether or not a person has tinnitus by using a clearing evoked potential and a classifier of an examinee so as to objectively examine the person's tinnitus.

In addition, we want to provide a technique to check not only the subject's tinnitus but also the degree of tinnitus heard by the subject and the frequency of the tinnitus.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

The tinnitus test apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a first stimulus sound including background noise and pulse noise, a second stimulus sound including a background sound with a silent gap and a pulse sound, A first waveform of an auditory evoked potential (AEP) of the subject according to the first stimulus sound and a first waveform of an auditory evoked potential (AEP) of the subject according to the second stimulus sound, A GPI calculating unit for measuring a GPI (Gap Pre-pulse Inhibition) ratio, which is a ratio between the amplitude between the pole points of the first waveform and the pole points of the second waveform, And a classifier for storing a reference GPI ratio measured in a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group and receiving a GPI ratio measured by the subject and examining whether the subject is aliased based on the reference GPI ratio do .

Wherein the stimulus sound generator generates a plurality of second stimulus sounds having different silence intervals, and the amplitude and GPI calculator calculate a maximum and a minimum, respectively, extracted from a plurality of second waveforms corresponding to the plurality of second stimulus sounds, A plurality of GPI ratios may be measured based on a plurality of amplitudes between the poles, or a GPI ratio may be measured based on the largest amplitude among the plurality of amplitudes. Here, the silence interval of each second stimulus note may be 10 ms or more and 100 ms or less.

In addition, the amplitude between the pole points may be an amplitude between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point of the first waveform and an amplitude between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point of the second waveform. In addition, the stimulus sound generator generates a plurality of first stimulus notes and second stimulus notes having different amplitudes of the background sounds or frequencies of the background sounds, and the amplitude and GPI calculator generate the plurality of first and second stimulus notes Wherein the classifier measures a plurality of GPI ratios measured from the subject and calculates an amplitude of the background sound or a frequency of the background sound with respect to a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group, And the GPI ratio to determine the tinnitus degree and tinnitus frequency of the subject.

In addition, the classifier receives the measured GPI ratio, and determines whether or not the subject's tinnitus according to the input GPI ratio from a classification model derived from a plurality of reference GPI ratios measured in a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group Can be inspected.

Further, the classifier receives the amplitudes of the first waveform or the second waveform and the measured GPI ratio, and derives a result of the tinnitus patient or normal group using the determined reference amplitude and the reference GPI ratio It is possible to check whether the subject is aliased according to the inputted amplitude and the GPI ratio.

Further, the classifier further stores a reference spectral power density of a reference GPIAS (Gap Pre-pulse Inhibition of Acoustic Start) and a clearing-induced potential measured in the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group, The spectral power density of the clearing-induced potential is further input, and it is possible to check whether the subject is aliased based on the classification model derived using the reference GPI ratio, the reference GPIAS, and the reference spectral power density.

A tinnitus checking method according to an exemplary embodiment includes a first stimulus sound including background noise and pulse noise, a second stimulus sound including a background sound with a silent gap and a pulse sound, A second waveform of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) of the subject according to the first stimulus sound and a second waveform of the auditory evoked potential of the subject according to the second stimulus sound; A GPI calculating step of measuring a GPI (Gap Pre-pulse Inhibition) ratio, which is a ratio between the amplitude between the pole points of the first waveform and the pole points of the second waveform, A diagnostic step of receiving a measured GPI ratio of the subject based on a reference GPI ratio measured in a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group and examining whether the subject is aliased based on the reference GPI ratio; Can.

Also, the stimulus sound generation step may include generating a plurality of second stimulus sounds having different silent intervals, and the step of calculating the amplitude and GPI may include the steps of generating a plurality of second stimulus sounds corresponding to the plurality of second stimulus sounds Using the amplitudes between the extracted maximum and minimum pole points or measuring the GPI ratio based on the largest amplitude. Here, the silence interval of each second stimulus note may be 10 ms or more and 100 ms or less.

In addition, the amplitude between the pole points may be an amplitude between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point of the first waveform and an amplitude between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point of the second waveform.

The diagnosing step may include receiving the measured GPI ratio and determining whether the subject's tinnitus according to the inputted GPI ratio from a classification model derived from a plurality of reference GPI ratios measured in a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group . ≪ / RTI >

The generating of the stimulus sound may include generating a plurality of first stimulus notes and a second stimulus note having different amplitudes of the background sounds or different frequencies of the background sounds, 1 < / RTI > and a second stimulus sound, wherein the diagnostic step comprises receiving a plurality of measured GPI ratios from the subject and determining an amplitude of the background sound for a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group Or determining the tinnitus degree and tinnitus frequency of the subject from the classification model derived using the amplitude and the GPI ratio measured at different frequency of the background sound.

The diagnostic step further stores the amplitude between the poles of the first waveform measured from the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group as a reference amplitude, and further comprises, in addition to the measured GPI ratio of the subject, And comparing the reference GPI ratio with the reference amplitude to check whether the subject is aliased.

Further, the diagnosis step further stores a reference spectral power density of a reference GPIAS (Gap Pre-pulse Inhibition of Acoustic Start) and a clearing evoked potential measured in the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group, and the measured GPIAS Or the spectral power density of the clearing-induced potential, and examining whether the subject is aliased based on the classification model derived using the reference GPI ratio, the reference GPIAS, and the reference spectral power density. have.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the auditory evoked potential of the subject is measured through the stimulus sound which can confirm the degree of tinnitus, and the information analyzed through the auditory evoked potential is input to the classifier to objectively examine the subject's tinnitus .

In addition, it is possible to generate a plurality of stimulus tones which can confirm the degree of tinnitus, thereby enabling the examinee to determine a stimulus sound more suitable for measuring the tinnitus, thereby accurately determining whether or not the subject is aliased, The frequency of tinnitus and the frequency of tinnitus.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a tinnitus test apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a first stimulus note and a second stimulus note according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the results of comparing the clearing evoked potentials between the tinnitus patient group and the normal group when the silent interval of the second stimulation sound was changed to 20 ms and 100 ms.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing the results of comparing amplitudes between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point extracted from the clearing evoked potentials of the tinnitus patient group and the normal group according to a second stimulus sound having a different silence interval.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing the results of comparing the GPI ratios of the tinnitus patient group and the normal group according to the results of FIG. 4. FIG.

6 is a diagram for explaining an algorithm for diagnosing a tinnitus patient using a feature vector according to an embodiment.

7 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a tinnitus checking method according to an embodiment.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a method for selecting a GPI ratio or a GPI ratio according to a plurality of second stimulus tones according to an embodiment to check the tinnitus.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a method for checking the degree of tinnitality or tinnitus frequency of a subject according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiments disclosed herein should not be construed or interpreted as limiting the scope of the present invention. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the description including the embodiments of the present specification has various applications. Accordingly, any embodiment described in the Detailed Description of the Invention is illustrative for a better understanding of the invention and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to embodiments.

The functional blocks shown in the drawings and described below are merely examples of possible implementations. In other implementations, other functional blocks may be used without departing from the spirit and scope of the following detailed description. Also, although one or more functional blocks of the present invention are represented as discrete blocks, one or more of the functional blocks of the present invention may be a combination of various hardware and software configurations that perform the same function.

In addition, the expression "including any element" is merely an expression of an open-ended expression, and is not to be construed as excluding the additional elements.

Further, when a component is referred to as being connected or connected to another component, it may be directly connected or connected to the other component, but it should be understood that there may be other components in between.

Also, the expressions such as 'first, second', etc. are used only to distinguish a plurality of configurations, and do not limit the order or other features between configurations.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the tinnitus test apparatus 100 and the tinnitus test method will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this process, the thicknesses of the lines and the sizes of the components shown in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity and convenience of explanation. In addition, the terms described below are defined in consideration of the functions of the present invention, which may vary depending on the intention or custom of the user, the operator. Therefore, definitions of these terms should be made based on the contents throughout this specification.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a tinnitus test apparatus 100 according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 1, the tinnitus test apparatus 100 includes a stimulus tone generator 110, a clarification induced potential measurement unit 120, an amplitude and GPI calculator 130, and a classifier 140.

The stimulus sound generator 110 generates a stimulus sound having a silent gap having a predetermined duration while the first stimulus note including the first background noise and the pulse noise and the second background sound continue And then generates a second stimulus sound including a pulse sound generated during the third background sound. At this time, the stimulus sound generator 110 may generate a plurality of second stimulus sounds with different durations of silent intervals.

Here, the background sound refers to a sound that lasts for a predetermined time at a predetermined frequency and a predetermined amplitude, and the pulse sound refers to a sound having a strength greater than a background sound for a time shorter than a predetermined time duration.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a first stimulus note and a second stimulus note according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 2, the first stimulus sound may include a pulse sound having a duration of 20 ms in the middle of the first background sound for about 1000 to 3000 ms, and the second stimulus sound may include a pulse sound of 1000 to 3000 ms And a silence interval having a duration of 20 ms starting from 200 to 120 ms before the pulse sound. After the silence interval is finished, a pulse having a duration of 20 ms after the third background sound is continued for 100 ms at the same amplitude and same frequency again Sound.

That is, the graph of (A) represents a first stimulus sound including a first background sound that lasts for a predetermined time at a predetermined frequency and a predetermined amplitude, and a pulse sound that has a duration shorter than a background sound in the middle of a continuous sound, (B), the second background sound continues for a predetermined time at a predetermined frequency and a predetermined amplitude, and after a silence interval for a predetermined time, the third background sound continues at the same frequency and the same amplitude again, And a second stimulus sound including pulse noise.

The lengths of the first, second and third background sounds described above, the length of the silent intervals, and the length between the end of the silent interval and the start of the pulse sound are exemplary values, but the invention is not limited thereto.

Meanwhile, the first stimulus note and the second stimulus note generated by the stimulus note generation unit 110 may be heard by the subject through an amplifier, a headphone, or the like. At this time, a sound level meter such as a probe microphone for measuring the sound pressure in front of the eardrum in the ear canal is connected to the stimulus sound generator 110 so that a stimulus sound of a strength appropriate for the subject is applied, can do.

The clarification induced potential measurement unit 120 measures a first waveform of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) of the subject according to the first stimulus sound and a second waveform of the stimulation induced potential of the subject according to the second stimulation sound do.

Here, the celestial evoked potential is the response measured by measuring the electrophysiological activity of the auditory nerve. More specifically, the electric nerve stimulation generated in the cochlear cells of the cochlea after the transmission of the auditory organ by acoustic stimulation is measured on the scalp.

The auditory evoked potential is the potential generated from the auditory pathway from the cochlea of the inner ear to the auditory cortex of the cerebral cortex after the stimulation of the sound, do. The auditory brainstem response is called the auditory brainstem response in about 10 ms after the stimulus and seven positive poles generally up to I - VII in the auditory brainstem response appear. The response that occurs in the thalamo-cortical pathway between the brainstem and the cerebral auditory cortex is called the auditory middle-latency response and is called the N0, P0, Na, Pa, Nb, . Finally, the responses that occur in the cerebral auditory cortex are called the auditory late response, and include the poles typically referred to as P1, N1, P2, and N2. The amplitude of the pole referred to in the specification of the present invention means the amplitude of at least one pole among a plurality of poles appearing at the clearing induced potential, and is not limited to any pole. Also, the magnitude of the amplitude may be the magnitude of the baseline-to-peak itself and may be the magnitude of the peak-to-peak magnitude.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the results of comparing the clearing evoked potentials between the tinnitus patient group and the normal group when the silent interval of the second stimulation sound was changed to 20 ms and 100 ms.

Referring to FIG. 3, when the 100 ms silent interval is present in the second stimulus note, the auditory evoked potentials for the first stimulus sound and the second stimulus stimulus are compared with each other. The difference between the maximum pole point and the minimum pole point in the clarification induced potential according to the second stimulus sound is smaller than the difference between the pole points in the clarification induced potential according to the first stimulus sound.

However, when the 20-ms silence interval was present in the second stimulus note, there was little difference between the response to the first stimulus sound and the auditory evoked potential for the second stimulus sound in the tinnitus patient group, The difference between the maximum pole point and the minimum pole point of the cognitive evoked potential is greater than when the second stimulus is heard.

The reason for this is that in case of listening to the second stimulus including the silence interval, the central nervous system contrasts with the pulse sound that occurs after the silence interval, so that the change of the cognitive evoked potential is small, It is similar to the response to the first stimulus tone because it does not recognize the silence interval due to the influence of the tinnitus. The embodiment of the present invention is based on the above principle and is based on the first waveform of the auditory evoked potential of the subject according to the first stimulus sound which does not include the silence interval and the first waveform of the auditory evoked potential of the subject in accordance with the second stimulation sound including the silence interval An index for judging whether or not the patient is tinnitized is measured by measuring a second waveform of the induced potential and measuring a GPI (Gap Pre-pulse Inhibition) ratio, which is a ratio between the amplitude between the pole points of the first waveform and the pole points of the second waveform .

To this end, the amplitude and GPI calculator 130 measures the amplitude between the pole points of the first waveform and the pole points of the second waveform from the first waveform and the second waveform measured by the clarification induced potential measurement unit 120 , The ratio of the amplitude of the first waveform to the amplitude of the second waveform is measured.

On the other hand, in terms of how to suppress the response to the pulse sound,

"As an indicator of the GPI ratio, or the size ratio of the two stimuli"

The tinnitus patient may be referred to as the first stimulus note and the second stimulus note in terms of the ratio between the amplitude of the first waveform and the amplitude of the second waveform. The GPI ratio is close to 1, and the GPI ratio of the normal group is smaller than the GPI ratio of the tinnitus patients because the difference between the stimulation - induced potentials is small.

The auditory evoked potential is the potential generated from the auditory pathway from the cochlea of the inner ear to the auditory cortex of the cerebral cortex after the stimulation of the sound, do. The auditory brainstem response is called the auditory brainstem response in about 10 ms after the stimulus and seven positive poles generally up to I - VII in the auditory brainstem response appear. The response that occurs in the thalamo-cortical pathway between the brainstem and the cerebral auditory cortex is called the auditory middle-latency response and is called the N0, P0, Na, Pa, Nb, . Finally, the responses that occur in the cerebral auditory cortex are called the auditory late response, and include the poles typically referred to as P1, N1, P2, and N2.

Accordingly, the amplitude and the GPI calculating unit 130 can measure the GPI ratio by measuring the amplitudes of the N1 and P2 reactions and the amplitudes between N1 and P2, which are the extreme points of the clearing-induced potential in the late phase reaction.

Meanwhile, the amplitude of the pole referred to in the present invention means the amplitude of one or more pole points among a plurality of pole points appearing at the clearing-induced potential, but as long as various types of EEG show similar patterns to N1 and P2 responses, You can check for the presence of tinnitus. Also, the magnitude of the amplitude may be the magnitude of the baseline-to-peak itself and may be the magnitude of the peak-to-peak magnitude.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing the results of comparing amplitudes between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point extracted from the clarification evoked potentials of the tinnitus patient group and the normal group according to the second stimulus sound having a different silence interval, and FIG. And GPI ratios of the tinnitus patient group and the normal group.

Referring to FIG. 4, it can be seen that the magnitude between the N1 and P2 of the tinnitus patient and the normal grouping inducing potential in the first stimulus negative reaction which is independent of the change of the silent interval length (100 ms, 20 ms) The patient's size was smaller than that of the normal stimulus.

Also, referring to FIG. 5, when the first stimulus sound and the second stimulus sound including the silence interval of 100 ms were tested, the GPI ratio average and standard deviation of the tinnitus patient group were 0.82 0.30, The standard deviation was 0.79 ± 0.20, indicating that there was no significant difference between the tinnitus and normal groups.

However, the effect of tinnitus at 20ms silent interval shows that there is almost no difference between the response to the first stimulus and the response to the second stimulus in the tinnitus group. On the other hand, in the normal group, it is confirmed that the response to the first stimulus sound is still greater than the second stimulus sound. The mean GPI ratio and standard deviation of the tinnitus patient group were 0.99 ± 0.21, and the mean GPI ratio and standard deviation of the normal group were 0.76 ± 0.18, which was statistically significant ( p = 0.001).

The above detailed values may vary according to the stimulus sound condition such as the pulse sound magnitude applied by the stimulus sound generator 110, but the effect of the presence or absence of tinnitus is influenced by the length of the silence interval included in the stimulus sound Can be confirmed.

On the other hand, when the silence interval is less than 10 ms, the effect of the silence interval is not obtained even in the GPI ratio of the normal group. Thus, the difference in the cognitive evoked potential due to the first stimulus sound and the second stimulus sound is not large. The patients with tinnitus had a length enough to recognize the interval of silence. As the GPI ratio did not differ between the tinnitus patient and the normal group, the second stimulus sound with a silence interval of less than 10 ms or greater than 100 ms, It is not appropriate to distinguish between the two.

Therefore, if the silent interval is more than 10 ms and less than 100 ms, the GPI ratio can be obtained to distinguish between the tinnitus patient and the normal group. Among them, the silent interval of 20 ms is the easiest to distinguish between the tinnitus patient and the normal group . Therefore, the stimulus sound generator 100 may generate a second stimulus sound including a silence interval of 10 ms or more and 100 ms or less.

In addition, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the stimulus tone generator 110 generates a plurality of second stimulus sounds by adjusting at least two values having different silence intervals, and the amplitude and GPI calculator 130 generates a plurality A plurality of GPI ratios are measured based on a plurality of amplitudes between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point extracted from a plurality of second waveforms corresponding to a second stimulus sound of the plurality of amplitudes or a GPI ratio is measured based on the largest amplitude among a plurality of amplitudes can do.

A plurality of GPI ratios are measured based on a plurality of amplitudes between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point extracted from a plurality of second waveforms corresponding to a plurality of second magnetic pole sounds or a plurality of GPI ratios measured based on a plurality of amplitudes The reason for use is as follows. According to the results of FIG. 5, it is easy to distinguish the GPI ratio between the tinnitus patient and the normal group when the silent interval is 10 to 100 ms. However, in measuring the tinnitus per individual, It is because.

The second waveform having the largest amplitude among the amplitudes between the maximum pole point and the minimum pole point extracted from the plurality of second waveforms is selected by dividing the silence interval of the second stimulation sound used when the amplitude of the second waveform is the largest, This means that it is easy to compare with the GPI ratio of the normal group.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to measure a plurality of GPI ratios based on a plurality of amplitudes between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point extracted from a plurality of second waveforms corresponding to at least two second pole notes having different silence intervals, The GPI ratio can be measured based on the largest amplitude of the amplitudes of the tinnitus patients.

The classifier 140 performs the function of assigning an input value to one of a plurality of classes. The input value may be the cognitive evoked potential itself, or it may mean a set of one or more feature values extracted from the cognitive evoked potential, i. E. A feature vector. At this time, the classifier 140 classifies the class into a class when new data that need to be classified are input using a plurality of raw data, which are feature values extracted from the cognitive evoked potential itself or the cognitive evoked potential, A classification model can be generated.

That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, a classification model is generated by using the input of the classifier 140 as the input of the clearing-induced potential measured from a plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group, or a classification model The classification model can be generated from the pole-point amplitudes and the GPI ratios extracted from the clearing-induced potentials according to the first waveform of the induced potential or the second waveform. Thus, the process of creating a classification model is called training or learning. The classifier 140 classifies a feature space into a plurality of classes by using a linear classifier that linearly classifies using a decision hyperplane and a nonlinear classifier that classifies by using a decision hypersurface (nonlinear classifier). In addition, the model may be classified according to whether the model is selected based on probability based on the model to be studied. A naive Bayesian classifier is used as the classifier 140 using a representative probability distribution, and a non-probabilistic classification model The classifier 140 to be used is a support vector machine. The classifier 140 described herein is exemplary only and is not intended to limit the invention.

A classifier 140 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a stimulus generator 110, a clarification induced potential measurer 120, and a reference measured through an amplitude and GPI calculator 130 in a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group, GPI ratio, and receives the amplitude and the GPI ratio of the subject measured by the GPI calculating unit 130, and can check whether the subject is aliased based on the reference GPI ratio stored in the database. Here, the reference GPI ratio means a raw data for calculating training data constituting a classification model through a classification algorithm.

In this case, the reference GPI ratio can further store reference GPI ratio values for the tinnitus patient group or the normal group calculated through the plurality of second stimulus tones generated by adjusting to at least two values having different silent intervals.

Accordingly, the classifier 140 samples a plurality of reference GPI ratios that are determined to be tinnitus patients or normal patients, and determines whether the numerical value of the inputted GPI ratio is a numerical value corresponding to the tinnitus patient or a normal group You can decide.

In addition, the classifier 140 receives the amplitude and the GPI ratio measured from the GPI calculator 130, and extracts training data from the classification model derived from the plurality of reference GPI ratios measured from the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group It is possible to check whether the subject is aliased by analyzing the input GPI ratio. At this time, the classifier 140 receives the amplitudes of the first waveform or the second waveform and the measured GPI ratios from the amplitude and GPI calculator 130, and calculates a plurality of tinnitus patients or normal group From the training data by the classification model derived by using the amplitude and the reference GPI ratio, it is possible to check the subject's tinnitus according to the inputted amplitude and the GPI ratio.

For example, the classifier 140 calculates the amplitude between the poles of the first waveform of the subject's auditory evoked potential according to the first stimulus sound, which does not include the amplitude and the silence interval measured through the GPI calculator 130, and the silence interval And one or more values among the amplitudes and GPI ratios of the second waveforms of the subject's clearing-induced potential according to the second stimulus sound included in the second stimulation waveform may be selected as a feature vector. In particular, the GPI ratio values calculated through the plurality of second stimuli generated by adjusting the amplitude and the silence interval between the punctuation-induced intense pole points for the first stimulus to the first stimulus are adjusted to at least two values different from each other have. The classifier 140 performs a learning process to generate a classification model that classifies the tinnitus patient and the normal group using the extracted feature vectors.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining how the classifier 140 according to an embodiment diagnoses a tinnitus patient using a feature vector. FIG. 6 illustrates a case where a second stimulus sound having a 20 ms silence interval is applied together with a first stimulus sound The GPI ratio value, which is the ratio between the amplitudes of N1 and P2 among the amplitudes of the clearing-induced potential poles for the first stimulus sound and the amplitudes between the first stimulus sound and the poles of the clearing evoked potentials obtained from the second stimulus sound, And shows an embodiment when it is used.

In this case, the number of feature vectors used as the input values may increase, but since the dimension of the space increases according to the number of feature vectors to be used, an example of two-dimensional classification using only two feature vectors / RTI >

Referring to FIG. 6, the x-axis is the GPI ratio value calculated from the subjects, and the y-axis represents the amplitude between N1 and P2 in the clearing-induced potential for the first stimulus. When using a linear support vector machine as a classification model, the optimal decision hyperplane for a binary classification of a tinnitus patient and a normal group is defined as a straight line wTx + b = 0. Here, the optimal crystal hyperplane refers to a straight line when the distance between the feature vectors of the closest class and the crystal hyperplane is the same for the two classes. Here, the feature vectors nearest to the decision hyperplane are called support vectors, and the margin of the decision hyperplane is defined as twice the distance between the nearest feature vectors and the decision hyperplane. In Fig. 6, it is classified into a normal group (y = -1) when wTx + b?? -1 and a tinnitus patient (y = + 1) when wTx + b? The principle of the support vector machine is to find w that maximizes the size of the margin, which is solved by solving the constrained optimization problem.

In addition, when the classification can not be completely classified as shown in FIG. 6, a soft margin technique may be used to increase classification accuracy while recognizing some feature vectors as errors. In addition, if linear classification is not possible in the dimension, a method of mapping the feature vector space to a higher dimension is used. In this case, the mapping function used is referred to as a kernel function, Is the Radial Basis Function (RBF). The feature vector of the newly measured subject is input to the learned classification model, and it can be determined which class of the tinnitus patient or the normal group the new subject belongs to according to the classification result.

Therefore, if only the simple magnitude comparison between the reference amplitude magnitude and the GPI ratio values specified beforehand is performed using only the stimulus tone generating unit 110, the cleanness induced potential measuring unit 120, the amplitude and the GPI calculating unit 130, It may be unclear as to what values to specify the reference values that can distinguish the normal group from the normal group. However, by using the classifier 140 storing the mathematical classification model learning the tinnitus patient and the normal classifier, And thus can more accurately classify patients with tinnitus.

At this time, the classifier 140 further stores at least one of the amplitude between the poles of the first waveform or the poles of the second waveform measured from the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group, and in addition to the GPI ratio measured by the subject, An amplitude between the pole points of the first waveform measured by the subject and an amplitude between the poles of the second waveform may be further inputted and the subject may be checked for tinnitus based on the stored reference GPI ratio.

If at least one of the amplitudes between the poles of the first waveform or the poles of the second waveform measured from the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group is stored as well as the GPI ratio in this manner, It is possible to calculate a more accurate result.

In addition, the classifier 140 may classify a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group as measured by a conventional GPIAS (Gap Pre-pulse Inhibition of Acoustic Start) method or a plurality of tinnitus patients, The spectral power density of the potential is further stored, and the spectral power density of the measured GPIAS or the celestial evoked potential from the subject is further inputted, so that it is possible to check whether the subject is aliased.

That is, not only the results measured by the stimulus tone generator 110 and the amplitude and GPI calculator 130 but also the spectral power density of the result measured through the GPIAS or the clearing-induced potential are used as input values of the additional classifier 140 A more accurate result can be obtained.

However, the factors that can be used as the input values of the classifier 140 are not limited to this. If the factors that can increase the reliability in measuring the tinnitus of the patient, the measured values extracted from the tinnitus patient and the normal group, 140, and using a plurality of factors as an input value of the classifier 140, it is possible to increase the reliability of the tinnitus patient test.

Meanwhile, the classifier 140 included in the above-described embodiment may be implemented by an arithmetic unit including a memory including instructions programmed to perform these functions, and a microprocessor that executes these instructions.

7 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a tinnitus checking method according to an embodiment. The tinnitus checking method according to FIG. 7 can be performed by the tinnitus testing apparatus 100 described with reference to FIG. 1, and each step will be described below.

First, the stimulus sound generator 110 generates a first stimulus sound including a background sound and a pulse sound, a second stimulus sound including a background sound with a silence interval, and a pulse sound (S710).

Thereafter, the clearing-off evoked potential measuring unit 120 measures a first waveform of the clearing-induced potential of the subject according to the first stimulation sound and a second waveform of the clearing-induced stimulation potential of the subject according to the second stimulation sound in step S720. The amplitude and GPI calculating unit 130 measures the GPI ratio, which is a ratio between the amplitude between the pole points of the first waveform and the pole points of the second waveform (S730).

Next, the classifier 140 receives the measured GPI ratio, and determines whether or not the subject's tinnitus according to the GPI ratio input from the classification model derived from the plurality of reference GPI ratios measured in the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group (S740).

Each step of FIG. 7 is the same as that of the apparatus shown in FIG.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a method for selecting a GPI ratio or a GPI ratio according to a plurality of second stimulus tones according to an embodiment to check the tinnitus. The tinnitus checking method according to FIG. 8 can be performed by the tinnitus testing apparatus 100 described with reference to FIG. 1, and each step will be described as follows.

First, the stimulus sound generator 110 generates a first stimulus sound including a background sound and a pulse sound, a second stimulus sound including a background sound with a silence interval and a pulse sound, To generate a plurality of second stimulus notes (S810).

Thereafter, the clearing-off evoked potential measurement unit 120 measures a first waveform of the clearing-induced potential of the subject according to the first stimulation sound and a plurality of second waveforms of the clearing-induced stimulation potential of the subject according to the plurality of second stimulation sounds (S820). The amplitude and GPI calculating unit 130 measures a plurality of GPI ratios based on a plurality of amplitudes between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point extracted from a plurality of second waveforms corresponding to a plurality of second magnetic pole sounds, The GPI ratio is measured based on the largest amplitude among the amplitudes of the first and second amplitudes (S830).

Measuring a plurality of GPI ratios based on a plurality of amplitudes between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point extracted from a plurality of second waveforms corresponding to a plurality of second magnetic pole sounds having different silent intervals, 140, it is possible to increase the factor by which the classifier 140 can determine whether or not it is the tinnitus patient group, and it is possible to calculate an accurate result.

The second waveform having the largest amplitude among the amplitudes between the maximum pole point and the minimum pole point extracted from the plurality of second waveforms is selected when the silence interval of the second stimulation sound used when the amplitude of the second waveform is the largest This means that it is easy to compare with the GPI ratio of the normal group.

Accordingly, the classifier 140, which stores the reference GPI ratios measured in the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group, receives the amplitudes and the measured GPI ratios of any one of the first waveform and the second waveform, (S840) whether the subject is alive or not according to the input amplitude and the GPI ratio from the classification model derived using the reference amplitude and the reference GPI ratio, the result of which is determined as the patient's normal group.

Here, the reference amplitude is a sample for calculating the training data constituting the classification model through the classification algorithm), and may be either the amplitude between the pole points of the first waveform or the amplitudes between the pole points of the second waveform, or both can do.

Therefore, according to the embodiment of FIG. 8, the largest amplitude among the maximum and minimum poles of the second waveform of the subject measured through the plurality of second magnetic noises generated by adjusting at least two values having different silence intervals By measuring the GPI ratio based on the second waveform with amplitude, it is possible to more accurately check whether the patient is tinnitus.

9 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a method for checking the amplitude or tinnitus frequency of a subject's tinnitus according to an embodiment. The tinnitus checking method according to FIG. 9 can be performed by the tinnitus testing apparatus 100 described with reference to FIG. 1, and each step will be described below.

First, the stimulus sound generator 110 generates a first stimulus sound including a background sound and a pulse sound, a second stimulus sound including a background sound with a silence interval and a pulse sound, And generates a plurality of different first stimuli and second stimuli (S910).

For example, the stimulus sound generator 110 can generate the background sound with the amplitude of ± 1 dB SL and ± 2 dB SL in units of 1 dB SL. At this time, the pulse sound is kept constant with about 65 dB SL amplitude.

This is because the amplitude of the background sound is similar to that of the tinnitus, so the tinnitus patient can not recognize the silence interval. Therefore, when the largest value of the GPI ratio measured when the amplitude of the background sound is different is derived, The degree of tinnitus felt by the subject is determined by measuring the GPI ratio by varying the amplitude of the background sound.

Meanwhile, the stimulus sound generator 110 may generate a stimulus sound by presetting the amplitude of the background sound based on the degree of tinnitus sensed by the subject through the tinnitogram loudness match, which is a conventional tinnitus test method.

For example, the stimulus sound generator 110 may generate a stimulus sound having a frequency of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9-10, 11-12, 14-16 kHz Can be generated and converted. The background sound may be pure tone and may be narrow band noise with a certain width. In addition, it may be various sounds such as broadband noise (white noise) and the like. At this time, the pulse sound has a frequency of about 1 KHz and is kept constant.

Because the frequency of the background sound is similar to that of the tinnitus, the tinnitus patient can not recognize the silence interval. Therefore, when the largest value of the GPI ratio measured when the frequency of the tinnitus is different is derived, The frequency of the tinnitus felt by the subject is determined by measuring the GPI ratio by varying the frequency of the background sound.

Meanwhile, the stimulus sound generator 110 may generate a stimulus sound by presetting the frequency of the background sound based on the frequency of the tinnitus sensed by the subject through the tinnitus matching test (tinnitogram), which is a conventional tinnitus test method.

Thereafter, the clearing-off evoked potential measuring unit 120 measures a plurality of first waveforms of the clearing-induced potential of the subject according to the plurality of first stimuli, and a plurality of second waveforms of the clearing-induced potential of the subject according to the plurality of second stimuli The waveform is measured in step S920. The amplitude and GPI calculator 130 measures a plurality of GPI ratios, which is a ratio between the amplitudes between the pole points of the plurality of first waveforms and the amplitudes of the plurality of second waveforms, in step S930.

At this time, the amplitude and GPI calculating unit 130 compares the measured plurality of GPI ratios, and selects the amplitude or frequency of the used background sound when the GPI ratio is the largest, and determines the amplitude or frequency of the background sound It can be judged based on the degree or frequency of the tinnitus and input to the classifier 140. However, if the classifier 140 is used, the amplitude and the plurality of GPI ratios measured by the GPI calculator 130 may all be input to the classifier 140, and the classifier 140 may make such a determination.

The classifier 140 receives a plurality of GPI ratios measured by the subject and classifies the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group using the amplitude and the GPI ratio measured by varying the frequency of the background sound or the background sound frequency The tinnitus degree and tinnitus frequency of the subject are inspected from the model (S940).

Therefore, according to the embodiment of FIG. 9, a plurality of tinnitus patients and / or a plurality of tinnitus patients using a plurality of GPI ratios measured through a plurality of first stimulus notes and second stimulus notes having different frequencies of the background sound or the background sound, The classifier 140 learned through the classification model using the amplitudes of the background sounds or the frequencies of the background sounds and the GPI ratios measured using the frequencies of the background sounds can determine the presence or absence of tinnitus according to a plurality of inputted GPI ratios , The degree of the tinnitus or the frequency of the tinnitus sensed by the examinee can be ranked and output for the plurality of inputted GPI ratios.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the auditory evoked potential of the subject is measured through the stimulus sound which can confirm the degree of tinnitus, and the information analyzing the measured auditory evoked potential is input to the classifier 140, Can be objectively inspected.

Also, it is possible to generate a plurality of stimuli with different amplitude or frequency of the background sound to check not only the tinnitus but also the frequency of the degree of tinnitus and the frequency of the tinnitus.

The above-described embodiments of the present invention can be implemented by various means. For example, embodiments of the present invention may be implemented by hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof.

In the case of hardware implementation, the method according to embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs) , FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, and the like.

In the case of an implementation by firmware or software, the method according to embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in the form of a module, a procedure or a function for performing the functions or operations described above. The software code can be stored in a memory unit and driven by the processor. The memory unit is located inside or outside the processor, and can exchange data with the processor by various known means.

Thus, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. It is therefore to be understood that the embodiments described above are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. It is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents. .

Claims (16)

1. A first stimulus sound including a first background noise and a pulse noise and a second stimulus sound including a second silence gap having a predetermined duration after the second background sound is sustained, A stimulus generator for generating a plurality of second stimulus notes including a generated pulse sound, the durations of the silence intervals being different from each other;

   A clearing-induced potential measuring unit for measuring a first waveform of a clearing-induced potential of the subject according to the first stimulation sound and a plurality of second waveforms of a clearing-induced potential of the subject according to the plurality of second stimulation sounds;

   An amplitude and a GPI calculating unit for measuring a plurality of GPI (Gap Pre-pulse Inhibition) ratios, which are ratios between amplitudes of the first waveform and the second waveform and the amplitudes of the second waveforms,

   A classifier for storing a reference GPI ratio measured in a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group and receiving a plurality of GPI ratios measured by the subject and examining whether the subject is alias based on the reference GPI ratio doing

   Tinnitus test device.
2. The method according to claim 1,

   The stimulus sound generator may include:

   Generating a plurality of second stimuli of the same type with different durations of the silent intervals,

   Wherein the amplitude and GPI computing unit comprises:

   Measuring a plurality of GPI ratios based on a plurality of amplitudes between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point extracted from the plurality of second waveforms corresponding to the plurality of second magnetic pole sounds, To measure the ratio

   Tinnitus test device.
3. 3. The method of claim 2,

   The silence interval of each second stimulus note is between 10 ms and 100 ms

   Tinnitus test device.
4. The method according to claim 1,

   The pole-

   The amplitude between the maximum pole point and the minimum pole point of the first waveform and the amplitude between the maximum pole point and the minimum pole point of the second waveform

   Tinnitus test device.
5. The method according to claim 1,

   Wherein the classifier comprises:

   The GPI ratio is measured, and the tinnitus of the subject according to the input GPI ratio is checked from a classification model derived from a plurality of reference GPI ratios measured in a plurality of tinnitus patients and normal groups

   Tinnitus test device.
6. The method according to claim 1,

   The stimulus sound generator may include:

   Generating a plurality of first stimulus notes and a second stimulus note having different amplitudes of the first, second and third background sounds or different frequencies of the first, second and third background sounds,

   Wherein the amplitude and GPI computing unit comprises:

   Measuring a plurality of GPI ratios according to the plurality of first and second stimulus tones,

   Wherein the classifier comprises:

   And a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group, wherein the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group have different amplitudes of the first, second, and third background sounds or different frequencies of the first, second, and third background sounds The tinnitus degree and tinnitus frequency of the subject are determined from the classification model derived using the measured amplitude and the GPI ratio

   Tinnitus test device.
7. The method according to claim 1,

   Wherein the classifier comprises:

   From the classification model derived using the reference amplitude and the reference GPI ratio, the amplitude of the first waveform or the second waveform and the measured GPI ratio, Checking whether the subject is aliased according to the input amplitude and the GPI ratio

   Tinnitus test device.
8. The method according to claim 1,

   Wherein the classifier comprises:

   Further comprising a reference spectral power density of a reference GPIAS (Gap Pre-pulse Inhibition of Acoustic Start) and a clearing evoked potential measured in the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group, wherein the spectrum of the GPIAS or clearing evoked potential measured from the subject Further examining whether the subject is aliased based on the classification model derived using the reference GPI ratio, the reference GPIAS, and the reference spectral power density

   Tinnitus test device.
9. A first stimulus sound including a first background noise and a pulse noise and a second stimulus sound including a second silence gap having a predetermined duration after the second background sound is sustained, A stimulus sound generation step of generating a plurality of second stimulus sounds including a pulse sound to be generated, the durations of the silence intervals being different from each other;

   Measuring a second waveform of the auditory evoked potential of the subject according to the first stimulus sound and a plurality of second waveforms of the auditory evoked potential of the subject according to the plurality of second stimulus sounds;

   An amplitude and a GPI calculating step of measuring a plurality of GPI (Gap Pre-pulse Inhibition) ratios, which are ratios between amplitudes of the first waveform and the second waveform and the amplitudes of the second waveforms,

   A diagnosis step of inputting a plurality of GPI ratios measured by the subject in a classifier storing a reference GPI ratio measured in a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group and checking whether the subject is aliased based on the reference GPI ratio Containing

   Tinnitus test method.
10. 10. The method of claim 9,

    The stimulus sound generating step may include:

    And generating a plurality of second stimuli of the same type with different durations of the silent intervals, the durations of the third background sounds being the same,

    Wherein the amplitude and GPI computing step comprises:

    Measuring a plurality of GPI ratios based on a plurality of amplitudes between a maximum pole point and a minimum pole point extracted from the plurality of second waveforms corresponding to the plurality of second magnetic pole sounds, Measuring the ratio

    Tinnitus test method.
11. 11. The method of claim 10,

    The silence interval of each second stimulus note is between 10 ms and 100 ms

    Tinnitus test method.
12. 10. The method of claim 9,

    The pole-

    The amplitude between the maximum pole point and the minimum pole point of the first waveform and the amplitude between the maximum pole point and the minimum pole point of the second waveform

    Tinnitus test method.
13. 10. The method of claim 9,

    The diagnostic step may comprise:

    Examining whether the subject is aliased according to the input GPI ratio from a classification model derived from a plurality of reference GPI ratios measured in a plurality of tinnitus patients and normal groups by receiving the measured GPI ratio doing

    Tinnitus test method.
14. 10. The method of claim 9,

    The stimulus sound generating step may include:

    Generating a plurality of first stimulus notes and a second stimulus note having different amplitudes of the first, second and third background sounds or different frequencies of the first, second and third background sounds,

    Wherein the amplitude and GPI computing step comprises:

    Measuring a plurality of GPI ratios according to the plurality of first and second stimulus tones,

    The diagnostic step may comprise:

    And a plurality of tinnitus patients and a normal group, wherein the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group have different amplitudes of the first, second, and third background sounds or different frequencies of the first, second, and third background sounds Determining the tinnitus degree and tinnitus frequency of the subject from the classification model derived using the measured amplitude and the GPI ratio

    Tinnitus test method.
15. 10. The method of claim 9,

    The diagnostic step may comprise:

    From the classification model derived using the reference amplitude and the reference GPI ratio, the amplitude of the first waveform or the polarity of the second waveform and the measured GPI ratio, And checking whether the subject is aliased according to the input amplitude and the GPI ratio

    Tinnitus test method.
16. 10. The method of claim 9,

    The diagnostic step may comprise:

    Further comprising a reference spectral power density of a reference GPIAS (Gap Pre-pulse Inhibition of Acoustic Start) and a clearing evoked potential measured in the plurality of tinnitus patients and the normal group, wherein the spectrum of the GPIAS or clearing evoked potential measured from the subject Further comprising receiving power density and examining whether the subject is aliased based on the classification model derived using the reference GPI ratio, the reference GPIAS, and the reference spectral power density

    Tinnitus test method.

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