Authors:
Armando Malanda
1
;
Ignacio Rodríguez
2
;
Luis Gila
3
;
Javier Navallas
1
;
Javier Rodríguez
1
and
Pierre A. Mathieu
4
Affiliations:
1
Universidad Pública de Navarra, Spain
;
2
Universidad de Navarra, Spain
;
3
Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra, Spain
;
4
Institute de Génie Biomédical and Université de Montréal, Canada
Keyword(s):
Motor Unit Action Potential, Firing Rates, EMG Power Spectrum.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications and Services
;
Biomedical Engineering
;
Biomedical Signal Processing
;
Computer Vision, Visualization and Computer Graphics
;
Medical Image Detection, Acquisition, Analysis and Processing
;
Physiological Processes and Bio-Signal Modeling, Non-Linear Dynamics
Abstract:
A method for estimating the range of the motor units mean firing rates from electromyographic (EMG) recordings is presented. The method is based on classical Fourier spectral estimation techniques and is applied to the 0-50 Hz band of the EMG signal within which the mean MU firing rates are usually observed in sustained contractions. Extensive simulations were performed to account for the influence of different signal characteristics such as the firing rate range (FRR), the number of MUAP trains, the coefficient of variation of the motor unit inter-spike intervals (IPI)) and the noise levels. The number of simulated MUAP trains whose mean firing rate dwelled within the estimated range and the estimation error for the lower and upper extremes of the actual FRR were evaluated. While some peaks were undetected and some inaccuracies in the detected firing rate range were observed, satisfactory results were obtained, as for the vast majority of cases the estimated range corresponded to th
e actual FRR of the simulated MUAP trains.
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