Estimation of load sharing among muscles acting on the same joint and Applications of surface electromyography

The force produced by a specific muscle cannot be measured and what is measured is the total force provided by all the active muscles acting on a joint, including agonists and antagonists. The first part of this work (chapter 3) addresses the issue of load sharing by proposing two possible approaches and testing them. The second part (chapter 4 and 5) addresses two applications of surface EMG focusing on the study of a) muscle relaxation associated to Yoga sessions and b) the activation of muscle of the back and shoulder of musicians playing string instruments (violin, viola and cello). In both parts the element of innovation is the use of two dimensional electrode arrays and of techniques based on EMG Imaging. The objectives of this work are presented and explained in chapter 1 while the basic concepts of surface EMG are summarized in chapter 2. Different EMG-based muscle force models found in the literature are explained and discussed. Two renowned amplitude indicators in surface EMG (sEMG) studies are the average rectified value (ARV) and the root mean square (RMS). These two amplitude indicators are computed over a defined time window of the recorded signals to represent the muscle activity. The advantages and disadvantages of RMS and ARV are compared and discussed for a simple sinusoid as well as for more complex signals (simulated motor unit action potential detected by high density electrode grid). The results show that RMS is more robust to the sampling frequency than ARV. In this thesis, starting from the simulation of a single fiber and of a group of fibers (motor unit), it is shown that inter electrode distance (IED) greater than10 mm causes aliasing. Aliasing is a source of error in sEMG map interpretation or decisions that are made by automatic algorithms such as those providing image segmentation for the identifications of regions of interest. Chapter 2 discusses three segmentation algorithms (K-means, h-dome, watershed) and compares them in order to find the most suitable method. Results reveal that among the three mentioned algorithms, watershed provides most accurate segmentation for the simulated ARV maps. Chapter 3 presents a mathematical model that is associated to the monotonic Force-EMG relation. A possible non-linear relationship between the EMG and force or torque is presented. A system of "M" equations is obtained by performing "M" measurements at "M" different force levels in isometric conditions. The solutions of such system of equations are the values for each muscles. Two different approaches were investigated for finding the solutions of the system, which are: a) Analytical-Graphical Approach (AGA) and b) Numerical Approach (NA) consisting of error minimization (between the total estimated and measured force) applying optimization algorithms. The AGA was used to find the model parameters of each muscle contributing to the force production on a joint by finding the intersection of those surfaces that can be obtained from sequential substitutions of the model parameters in the equations corresponding to each contraction level. In simulation studies, the AGA graphically shows that there is more than one solution to the load sharing problem even for the simplest theoretical case (i.e. a joint spanned by only two muscles). The second approach, based on minimization of the mean square error between the measured and the total estimated force or torque (with "N" muscles involved) provides an estimate of the model parameters that in turn provides the force contributions of the individual muscles. The optimization algorithms can find the solutions of our system made of non-linear equations (see chapter 3). Starting from different point (initial conditions), different solutions can be found, as predicted by the AGA approach for the two-muscle case. The main conclusion of this study is that the load sharing strategy is not unique. Chapter 4 discusses the application of surface electromyography to a single case study of Yoga relaxation to show the feasibility of measurements. The effect of yoga relaxation on muscle activity (sEMG amplitude), as well as on mean and median frequencies and muscle fiber's conduction Velocity, is discussed in this chapter. No changes in the sEMG activity pattern distribution were found for the same task performed before and after applying yoga relaxation technique. However, myoelectric manifestations of fatigue were smaller after relaxation and returned to the normal pattern after the recovery phase from relaxation. Further studies are justified. Chapter 5 describes results and discusses the spatial distribution of muscle activity over the Trapezius and Erector Spinae muscles of musicians playing string instruments. In chapter 5, the effect of backrest support in sitting position during playing cello, viola, and violin on the muscle activity index of upper and lower Trapezius muscle of the bowing arm, upper Trapezius muscle of non-bowing arm, left and right Erector Spinae muscles is investigated. Two professional players (one cello and one viola) and five student players (one cello, three violin and one viola) participated in this study. The muscle activity index (MAI) was defined as the spatial average of RMS values of the muscle active region detected by watershed segmentation for Trapezius muscles (left and right), and thresholding technique (70% of the maximum value) for left and right Erector Spinae muscles. It was found that the MAI is string (note) dependent. Statistical difference (p < 0:05) between the MAIs of left Erector Spinae muscle during playing with and without backrest support was observed in four (out of five) student players. No statistical differences were observed on the muscle activity of Trapezius (bowing and no-bowing arms) during playing with and without backrest support in different types of bowing for all musicians. In conclusion, this work addresses a) the issue of spatial sampling and segmentation of sEMG using 2D electrode arrays, b) two possible approaches to the load-sharing issue, c) a single-case study of Yoga relaxation and d) the distribution of muscle activity above the Trapezius and Erector Spinae muscles of musicians playing string instruments. Previously unavailable knowledge has been achieved in all these four studies

Spatial distribution of surface EMG on trapezius and lumbar muscles of violin and cello players in single note playing

Musicians activate their muscles in different patterns, depending on their posture, the instrument being played, and their experience level. Bipolar surface electrodes have been used in the past to monitor such activity, but this method is highly sensitive to the location of the electrode pair. In this work, the spatial distribution of surface EMG (sEMG) of the right trapezius and right and left erector spinae muscles were studied in 16 violin players and 11 cello players. Musicians played their instrument one string at a time in sitting position with/without backrest support. A 64 sEMG electrode (16x4) grid, 10mm inter-electrode distance (IED), was placed over the middle and lower trapezius (MT and LT) of the bowing arm. Two 16x2 electrode grids (IED=10mm) were placed on the left and right erector spinae muscles. Subjects played each of the four strings of the instrument either in large (1bow/s) or detaché tip/tail (8bows/s) bowing in two sessions (two days). In each of two days, measurements were repeated after half an hour of exercise to see the effect of exercise on the muscle activity and signal stability. A “muscle activity index” (MAI) was defined as the spatial average of the segmented active region of the RMS map. Spatial maps were automatically segmented using the watershed algorithm and thresholding. Results showed that, for violin players, sliding the bow upward from the tip toward the tail results in a higher MAI for the trapezius muscle than a downward bow. On the contrary, in cello players, higher MAI is produced in the tail to tip movement. For both instruments, an increasing MAI in the trapezius was observed as the string position became increasingly lateral, from string 1 (most medial) toward string 4 (most lateral). Half an hour of performance did not cause significant differences between the signal quality and the MAI values measured before and after the exercise. The MAI of the left and right erector spinae was smaller in the case of backrest support, especially for violin players. Back muscles of violin and cello players were activated asymmetrically, specifically in fast movements (detaché tip/tail). These findings demonstrate the sensitivity and stability of the technique and justify more extensive investigation following this proof of concept

Estimation of self-sustained activity produced by persistent inward currents using firing rate profiles of multiple motor units in humans

Persistent inward calcium and sodium currents (IP) activated during motoneuron recruitment help synaptic inputs maintain self-sustained firing until de-recruitment. Here, we estimate the contribution of the IP to self-sustained firing in human motoneurons of varying recruitment threshold by measuring the difference in synaptic input needed to maintain minimal firing once the IP is fully activated compared with the larger synaptic input required to initiate firing prior to full IP activation. Synaptic input to ≈20 dorsiflexor motoneurons simultaneously recorded during ramp contractions was estimated from firing profiles of motor units decomposed from high-density surface-EMG. To avoid errors introduced when using high-threshold units firing in their nonlinear range, we developed methods where the lowest-threshold units firing linearly with force were used to construct a composite (control) firing rate profile to estimate synaptic input to the higher-threshold (test) units. The difference in the composite firing rate (synaptic input) at the time of test unit recruitment and de-recruitment (ΔF=Frecruit-Fde-recruit) was used to measure IP amplitude that sustained firing. Test units with recruitment thresholds 1-30% of maximum had similar ΔFs, which likely included both slow and fast motor units activated by small and large motoneurons, respectively. This suggests that the portion of the IP that sustains firing is similar across a wide range of motoneuron sizes. Higher-threshold units had more prolonged accelerations in firing rate at the onset of recruitment compared to lower-threshold units, likely reflecting IP activation closer to firing onset in the higher-threshold units, but well before firing onset in the lower-threshold units

Solving EMG-force relationship using Particle Swarm Optimization

The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is applied to the problem of "load sharing" among muscles acting on the same joint for the purpose of estimating their individual mechanical contribution based on their EMG and on the total torque. Compared to the previously tested Interior-Reflective Newton Algorithm (IRNA), PSO is more computationally demanding. The mean square error between the experimental and reconstructed torque is similar for the two algorithms. However, IRNA requires multiple initializations and tighter constraints found by trial-and-errors for the input variables to find a suitable optimum which is not the case for PSO whose initialization is random

Automatic detection of motor unit innervation zones of the external anal sphincter by multichannel surface EMG

A method to detect automatically the location of innervation zones (IZs) from 16-channel surface EMG (sEMG) recordings from the external anal sphincter (EAS) muscle is presented in order to guide episiotomy during child delivery. The new algorithm (2DCorr) is applied to individual motor unit action potential (MUAP) templates and is based on bidimensional cross correlation between the interpolated image of each MUAP template and two images obtained by flipping upside-down (around a horizontal axis) and left–right (around a vertical axis) the original one. The method was tested on 640 simulated MUAP templates of the sphincter muscle and compared with previously developed algorithms (Radon Transform, RT; Template Match, TM). Experimental signals were detected from the EAS of 150 subjects using an intra-anal probe with 16 equally spaced circumferential electrodes. The results of the three algorithms were compared with the actual IZ location (simulated signal) and with IZ location provided by visual analysis (VA) (experimental signals). For simulated signals, the inter quartile error range (IQR) between the estimated and the actual locations of the IZ was 0.20, 0.23, 0.42, and 2.32 interelectrode distances (IED) for the VA, 2DCorr, RT and TM methods respectively