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Detection of intermuscular coordination based on the causality of empirical mode decomposition

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Abstract

Considering the stochastic nature of electromyographic (EMG) signals, nonlinear methods may be a more accurate approach to study intermuscular coordination than the linear approach. The aims of this study were to assess the coordination between two ankle plantar flexors using EMG by applying the causal decomposition approach and assessing whether the intermuscular coordination is affected by the slope of the treadmill. The medial gastrocnemius (MG) and soleus muscles (SOL) were analyzed during the treadmill walking at inclinations of 0°, 5°, and 10°. The coordination was evaluated using ensemble empirical mode decomposition, and the causal interaction was encoded by the instantaneous phase dependence of time series bi-directional causality. To estimate the mutual predictability between MG and SOL, the cross-approximate entropy (XApEn) was assessed. The maximal causal interaction was observed between 40 and 75 Hz independent of inclination. XApEn showed a significant decrease between 0° and 5° (p = 0.028), between 5° and 10° (p = 0.038), and between 0° and 10° (p = 0.014), indicating an increase in coordination. Thus, causal decomposition is an appropriate methodology to study intermuscular coordination. These results indicate that the variation of loading through the change in treadmill inclination increases the interaction of the shared input between MG and SOL, suggesting increased intermuscular coordination.

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Acknowledgements

MC is partially supported by Iniciativa Cientifica Milenio ICM P09-015F, FONDECYT 1211988, FONDEF ID20I10371, PIA ACT192015, and DAAD 57220037 and 57168868.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioral and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Carlos Cruz-Montecinos & Huub Maas

  2. Laboratory of Clinical Biomechanics, Department of Kinesiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Av. Independencia 1027, Independencia, Santiago, Chile

    Carlos Cruz-Montecinos & Claudio Tapia

  3. Department of Teaching of Musical, Visual and Corporal Expression, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Xavier García-Massó

  4. Human Movement Analysis Group, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Xavier García-Massó

  5. Integrative Biology Program, Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBM), Center for Medical Informatics and Telemedicine (CIMT), Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Mauricio Cerda

  6. Biomedical Neuroscience Institute (BNI), Santiago, Chile

    Mauricio Cerda

  7. Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Javier Ruiz-del-Solar

  8. Departamento de Kinesiología, Facultad de Artes Y Educación Física, Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de La Educación, Santiago, Chile

    Claudio Tapia

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  1. Carlos Cruz-Montecinos
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Contributions

CC-M: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, writing—original draft, writing—reviewing and editing. XG-M: data curation, writing—original draft, writing—reviewing and editing. HM: data curation, methodology, writing—original draft, writing—reviewing and editing. MC: supervision, writing—original draft, writing—reviewing and editing. JR-S: formal analysis, writing—original draft, writing—reviewing and editing. CT: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, supervision, writing—original draft, writing—reviewing and editing.

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Correspondence to Claudio Tapia.

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Cruz-Montecinos, C., García-Massó, X., Maas, H. et al. Detection of intermuscular coordination based on the causality of empirical mode decomposition. Med Biol Eng Comput 61, 497–509 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-022-02736-4

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