Journal of neuroscience methods
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J. Neurosci. Methods · Jul 2004
A new method for the extraction and classification of single motor unit action potentials from surface EMG signals.
It has been shown that multi-channel surface EMG allows assessment of anatomical and physiological single motor unit (MU) properties. To get this information, the action potentials of single MUs should be extracted from the interference EMG signals. This study describes an automatic system for the detection and classification of MU action potentials from multi-channel surface EMG signals. ⋯ Thus, the proposed algorithm was able to identify a MU sample representative of the muscle. Results on experimental signals recorded from different muscles and conditions are reported, showing the possibility of investigating anatomical and physiological properties of the detected MUs in a variety of practical cases. The main limitation of the approach is that complete firing patterns can be obtained only in specific cases due to MU action potential superpositions.