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Armin Allahverdy

1935
Electromyography
• Defined as the preparation, study of, and interpretation of
electromyograms
Electromyogram:
• Defined as the electrical activity associated with the
contraction of a muscle
Greek derivative:
• elektron, amber, + mys, muscle, + gramma, something
written
Dendrite

Soma
(body)
Axon
A motor unit is
composed of a
motor neuron and
all of the muscle
fibers it innervates
each muscle has many motor units (m.u.)
# of fibers in a m.u. is dependent on the precision of movement required of that
muscle (average: 100-200 fibers per m.u.)
 more precision is obtained with more neurons
 100 to 2000 motor neurons per muscle
# of m.u.’s in a muscle decreases in the elderly
Motor neurons release acetylcholine.
This has an excitatory effect on muscle fibres.
A single action potential in the motor nerve is enough to
trigger an action potential in the muscle fibre.
Depolarisation triggers the release of calcium ions, which
trigger contraction.
The potential (voltage) generated by one fibre is small
(<100mV).
Clinical applications
Invasive recording used in assessment.
Biofeedback
Can aid rehabilitation after injury or stroke
May have other applications e.g. forehead EMG biofeedback may reduce
tension headache.
EMG and covert behaviour e.g.
subvocalisation while reading
Facial EMG and emotion
Uses:
• Provides an indication of how much a muscle is being used
during particular types of activity
• Is a muscle on or off?
• Is a muscle fatigued?
By placing electrodes over the muscle
we can record the signal generated by
muscle contraction.
Voltage is displayed continuously and
recorded for analysis.
The signal includes positive and
negative waves and varies rapidly: we
also analyse integrated EMG (averages
over 20 samples, ignoring the sign)
Length of electrodes
 # of included fibers vs. increased noise***
 Delsys – 1 cm
 Noraxon - ?
Distance between electrodes
 Increased amplitude vs. misaligning electrodes, Multiple motor unit action potentials
(MUAP)
 Muscle fibers of motor units are distributed evenly, thus large muscle coverage is
not necessary
(De Luca).
 Delsys – 1 cm
 Noraxon – 2 cm?
Away from motor point
MUAP traveling in opposite directions
Simultaneous (+) & (-) AP’s
Resultant increased frequency components
More jagged signal
Middle of muscle belly is generally accepted
Away from tendon
Fewer, thinner muscle fibers
Closer to other muscle origins, insertions
More susceptible to cross-talk
Away from outer edge of muscle
Closer to other musculature
Orientation parallel to muscle fibers
More accurate conduction velocity
Increased probability of detecting same signal
As far away as possible from recording electrodes
Electrically neutral tissue
Bony prominence
Good electrical contact
Larger size
Good adhesive properties
Muscle contraction is graded by varying
The number of active motor units within the muscle.
The frequency of firing of each motor unit.
Skeletal muscles are normally slightly contracted, known as
tonus. At any given time a small proportion of the motor units
will be active.
Exertion can increase the size of individual fibres and increase
energy stores: Hypertrophy.
Muscle contraction
Excitation-contraction coupling
• Process of nerve-muscle excitation leading to Ca++ release
and force generation
Muscle contraction
1) Nerve stimulation
• motor nerve
2) Electrochemical transmission
• saltatory conduction
3) Terminal nerve (axon) activity
• Ca++ influx
• Vesicle docking
• Ach release into synaptic cleft
Muscle contraction
4) End-plate potential
• Activation of motor end plate
• Ach-receptor binding leading to Na+ influx (depolarization)
5) Membrane propagation
• muscle fiber membrane excitation spreads over the fiber
• THIS IS THE EMG SIGNAL!
Electromyogram
(EMG)
• Algebraic summation of all motor unit action potentials
propagated along a muscle at a point in time
• MUAPs - Motor unit action potentials
• Recording all the MFAPs of all the motor units activated by
the CNS in a given period of time
Electromyography
(EMG)
Generation of the EMG signal
• “Wave” of depolarization and the subsequent “wave” of
repolarization are detected by recording electrodes
Electromyography
(EMG)
Generation of the EMG signal

Recording electrode

Muscle surface

Repolarization Depolarization
Electromyography
(EMG)
2 types of recording electrodes:
1) Surface
• most commonly used
• small recording surface
• placed over the muscle belly
• requires adequate skin preparation: removal of hair, oil, dirt,
skin, etc.
Electromyography
(EMG)
2) Indwelling
• inserted directly into the muscle via a hypodermic needle
• used for deep muscles
• used to identify different motor units recruited or how many
motor units recruited during an activity
Electromyography
(EMG)
Characteristics:
1) Muscle primarily involved during a particular movement
• no direct indication of muscle force
• concentric or eccentric contractions
• related to muscle force
Electromyography
(EMG)
Characteristics:
2) Measures antagonist muscle activity
Example:
• hamstring activity at terminal phase of knee extension
Electromyography
(EMG)
Characteristics:
3) Assessment of muscle fatigue and recruitment of different
motor units and fiber types
• Analyzing the frequency of the EMG signals
• related to type of motor unit activated and conduction
velocity
Electromyography
(EMG)
Factors affecting the EMG
1) Depth of the muscle fiber
• affecting distance to recording electrode
• if distance increases, signal amplitude decreases
• muscle contraction: low to high intensities move from deep
to surface of muscle
Electromyography
(EMG)
Factors affecting the EMG
2) Muscle fiber type
Fast twitch fibers:
• high conduction velocity
• high frequency and higher amplitude
Electromyography
(EMG)
Factors affecting the EMG
3) Motor unit size
• “all or none” response
• a larger motor unit will result in a larger EMG recording
Electromyography
(EMG)
Factors affecting the EMG
4) Muscle temperature
• increasing temperature increases conduction velocity
• negligible increases in body temperature during exercise
Electromyography
(EMG)
Factors affecting the EMG
5) Amount of tissue between muscles and electrodes
• skin and subcutaneous fat
• acts as a “low pass” filter
• decreases detection of EMG signals with higher frequencies
Raw EMG signal
• Can be assessed qualitatively
• visually observing the size and density of the EMG signal
Assessing
amplitude
• Method of evaluating the “amount” of EMG activity collected
Different methods:
• rectification
• integration
• linear envelope
• root mean square (RMS)
Assessing
amplitude
• Raw EMG signal is a bi-polar signal
• positive and negative phases
Rectification
• Method of translating the raw EMG signal to a single polarity
Half-wave rectification
• eliminating one polarity of the signal (Ex. Deleting the
negative phase)
Rectification
Full-wave rectification
• Inverting the negative polarity onto the positive polarity
• Preferred and most often used method
• Preserves all the energy in the raw EMG signal
Rectific
ation
Raw signal Full-wave rectified signal
Rectification
• Once rectified, now can perform calculations on the signal
Why not perform calculations on the raw signal itself?
• Bi-polar signal (positive and negative phases)
• positive + negative = ZERO
What do you do now with the rectified signal?
Integration
• Mathematical operation of calculating the area underneath
the rectified curve
• This measure is a function of time
• The longer the EMG is collected, the more integrated EMG
will appear
Integr
• ation
Area = length × width
• Units for integrated EMG = mV sec
• depends upon the amplitude, duration and frequency of
action potentials

mV

seconds
Linear envelope
• Method of “smoothing” the rectified EMG signal
• Used most often in gait studies (cyclical muscle contractions)
• Use of a moving average to smooth the signal
Linear
• envelope
Calculating the average EMG amplitude (mV) over a fixed
window length
• moving the window across the whole EMG signal at fixed
intervals
Rectified signal
mV Linear envelope

seconds
Root mean square
• Different method of processing the raw EMG (AC) signal
• also gives a moving average over time (smoothing effect)
• is a measure of signal power
• converts the raw signal to a single polarity
Root mean square
• The value of the raw EMG signal (amplitude) is squared (V2)
• the raw signal is the square root of the resultant, or
processed, signal
• units = mV.
EMG frequency
analysis
• Method of assessing the frequency domain of the EMG signal
• Amplitude measures (integration, RMS, etc.) are in the time
domain
• Frequency analysis: assessing the “quality” of the EMG
signal
• Reflection of the conduction velocity of the recorded MFAPs
(muscle fiber type specific)
EMG frequency
analysis
• The EMG signal is a composite measure of many simple
sinusoid waves
• Alternating waves
• the EMG signal is non-periodic (i.e. - they do not repeat any
any regular interval)
• Transformation of the EMG signal from the time domain to
the frequency domain
Frequency
spectrum

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