Abstract
The clinical community has long shown interest in the concept of extracting as many motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) as possible from an intramuscular electromyographic (EMG) signal. Adrian and Bronk (1929) developed the first concentric needle electrode to identify both shape and firing rate of the MUAPs. Subsequent manual approaches of graphically measuring and quantifying the EMG signal evolved into computer-based techniques directed at identifying individual action potentials and discharge times by shape discrimination. The Precision Decomposition technique described in this chapter recovers all the usable information available in the EMG signal. The information can be conveniently grouped into two categories: morphology and control properties. Morphology describes the parameters of the MUAP shape such as the peak-to-peak amplitude, the time duration, the number of phases, and the area. These parameters are provided by the recovered Concentric and Macro MUAP. The morphology of the MUAP describes features that are related to the anatomical and physiological properties of the muscle fibers. These are the parameters which the clinician is accustomed to evaluating during a standard clinical EMG examination. The control properties of the motor units dictate the firing characteristics of the motor units. Therefore, the firing characteristics provide a description of how the motor units are controlled by the central nervous system and to some extent the peripheral nervous system. Clinically, they quantify upper motoneuron diseases.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Adam A, De Luca CJ, Erim Z (1988) Hand dominance and motor unit firing behavior. J Neurophysiol 80:1373–1382
Adrian ED and Bronk DW (1929) Motor nerve fibers. Part II. The frequency of discharge in reflex and voluntary contractions. J Physiol 67:19–151
Clamann HP (1970) Activity of single motor units during isometric tension. Neurology 20:254–260
De Luca C (1979) Physiology and mathematics of myoelectric signals. IEEE Trans Biomed Engin BME-26:315–325
De Luca CJ (1985) Control properties of motor units. J Exp Biol 115:125–136
De Luca CI, Erim Z (1994) Common Drive of Motor Units in Regulation of Muscle Force. Trends Neurosci 17:299–305
De Luca CJ, Roy AM, Erim Z (1993) Synchronization of motor-unit firings in several human muscles. J Neurophysiol 70:2010–2023
De Luca CJ, Foley PJ, Erim Z (1996) Control Properties of Motor Units in Constant-Force Isometric Contractions. J Neurophysiol 76:1503–1516
De Luca CJ (1993) Precision decomposition of EMG signals. Methods Clin Neurophysiol 4:1–28
De Luca CJ, Mambrito B (1987) Voluntary control of motor units in human antagonist muscles: Coactivation and reciprocal activation. J Neurophysiol 58:525–542
De Luca CJ, Forrest WJ (1973) Some properties of motor unit action potential trains recorded during constant force isometric contractions in man. Kybernetik 12:160–168
De Luca CJ, LeFever RS, McCue MP, Xenakis AP (1982a) Behavior of human motor units in different muscles during linearly-varying contractions. J Physiol (Lond) 329:113–128
De Luca CJ, LeFever RS, McCue MP, Xenakis AP (1982b) Control scheme governing concurrently active motor units during voluntary contractions. J Physiol 329:129–142
Erim Z, Beg MF, Burke DT, De Luca CJ (in press) Effects of aging on motor unit firing behavior. J Neurophysiol 23:18–33
Erim Z, De Luca C, Mineo K, Aoki T (1996) Rank-Ordered regulation of motor units. Muscle & Nerve 19:563–573
Guiheneuc P (1992) Le Recruitment de Unités Motrices: Méthodologie, Physiologie et Pathologie. In: Cadilhac J, Dapres G (Eds.) EMG: Actualités en Electromyographie, pp 35–39. Sauramps Medical; Montpellier
Henneman E, Somjen G, Carpenter DO (1965a) Excitability and inhibitability of motoneurons of different sizes. J Neurophysiol 28:599–620
Henneman E, Somjen G, Carpenter DO (1965b) Functional significance of cell size in spinal motoneurons. J Neurophysiol 28:560–580
Hoffer JA, Sugano N, Loeb GE, Marks WB, O’Donovan MJ, Pratt CA (1987) Cat hindlimb motoneurons during locomotion. II. Normal activity patterns. J Neurophysiol 57:530–552
Iyer MB, Christakos CN, Ghez C (1994) Coherent modulations of human motor unit discharges during quasi-sinusoidal isometric muscle contractions. Neurosci Lett 170:94–98
Kernell D (1965) The adaptation and the relation between discharge frequency and current strength of cat lumbosacral motoneurones stimulated by long-lasting injected currents. Acta Physiol Scand 65:65–73
Kukulka CG, Clamann PH (1981) Comparison of the recruitment and discharge properties of motor units in human brachial biceps and adductor pollicis during isometric contractions. Brain Res 219:45–55
LeFever, RS and De Luca, C 1 (1978) Decomposition of action potential trains. Proceedings of 8th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 229
LeFever RS, De Luca CJ (1982a) A procedure for decomposing the myoelectric signal into its constituent action potentials. Part I. Technique, theory and implementation. IEEE Trans Biomed Engin BME-29: 149–157
LeFever RS, Xenakis AP, De Luca CJ (1982b) A procedure for decomposing the myoelectric signal into its constituent action potentials. Part II. Execution and test for accuracy. IEEE Trans Biomed Engin BME-29: 158–164.
Mambrito B, De Luca CJ (1984) A technique for the detection, decomposition and analysis of the EMG signal. EEG Clin Neurophysiol 58: 175–188.
Miles TS (1987) The cortical control of motor neurons: some principles of operation. Medical Hypotheses 23:43–50
Person RS, Kudina LP (1972) Discharge frequency and discharge pattern of human motor units during voluntary contractions in man. EEG Clin Neurophysiol 32:371–483
Rossi A, Mazzachio R (1991) Presence of homonymous recurrent inhibition in motoneurons supplying different lower limb muscles in humans. Exp Brain Res 84:367–373
Semmler JG, Nordstrom MA, Wallace CJ (1997) Relationship between motor unit short-term synchronization and common drive in human first dorsal interosseous muscle. Brain Res 767:314–320
Stashuk D, De Bruin H (1988) Automatic decomposition of selective needle-detected myoelectric signals. IEEE Trans Biomed Engin BME-35:1–10
Stashuk D, De Luca CJ (1989) Update on the decomposition and analysis of EMG signals. In: Desmedt JE (ed) Computer-aided electromyography and expert systems, pp 39–53. Elsevier: Amsterdam
Tanji J, Kato M (1973) Firing rate of individual motor units in voluntary contraction of abductor digiti minimi muscle in man. Exp Neurol 40:771–783
Westgaard RH, De Luca CJ (1999) Motor Unit Substitution in Long-Duration Contractions of the Human Trapezius Muscle. J Neurophysiol 82:501–504
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
De Luca, C.J., Adam, A. (1999). Decomposition and Analysis of Intramuscular Electromyographic Signals. In: Windhorst, U., Johansson, H. (eds) Modern Techniques in Neuroscience Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58552-4_27
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58552-4_27
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-63643-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-58552-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive