J Appl Physiol 96: 1486–1495, 2004;

Invited Review 10.1152/japplphysiol.01070.2003.

HIGHLIGHTED TOPIC Neural Control of Movement

The extraction of neural strategies from the surface EMG

Dario Farina,1 Roberto Merletti,1 and Roger M. Enoka2
1
Laboratorio di Ingegneria del Sistema Neuromuscolare, Dipartimento di
Elettronica, Politecnico di Torino, Torino 10129, Italy; and 2Department
of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0354

Farina, Dario, Roberto Merletti, and Roger M. Enoka. The extraction of

neural strategies from the surface EMG. J Appl Physiol 96: 1486–1495, 2004;
10.1152/japplphysiol.01070.2003.—This brief review examines some of the meth-
ods used to infer central control strategies from surface electromyogram (EMG)
recordings. Among the many uses of the surface EMG in studying the neural
control of movement, the review critically evaluates only some of the applications.
The focus is on the relations between global features of the surface EMG and the
underlying physiological processes. Because direct measurements of motor unit
activation are not available and many factors can influence the signal, these
relations are frequently misinterpreted. These errors are compounded by the
counterintuitive effects that some system parameters can have on the EMG signal.
The phenomenon of crosstalk is used as an example of these problems. The review
describes the limitations of techniques used to infer the level of muscle activation,
the type of motor unit recruited, the upper limit of motor unit recruitment, the
average discharge rate, and the degree of synchronization between motor units.
Although the global surface EMG is a useful measure of muscle activation and
assessment, there are limits to the information that can be extracted from this signal.
motor unit; spectral analysis; recruitment strategies; synchronization; amplitude
cancellation; electromyogram

THE SURFACE ELECTROMYOGRAM (EMG) comprises the sum of the
electrical contributions made by the active motor units (MUs)
as detected by electrodes placed on the skin overlying the
muscle. The information extracted from the surface EMG is
often considered a global measure of MU activity, because of
the inability of the traditional (2 electrode) recording configu-
ration to detect activity at the level of single MUs. The global
characteristics of the surface EMG, such as its amplitude and
power spectrum, depend on the membrane properties of the
muscle fibers as well as on the timing of the MU action
potentials. Thus the surface EMG reflects both peripheral and
central properties of the neuromuscular system.
Two approaches are available to study the relations between
the surface EMG and the properties of the neuromuscular
system: one forward and the other inverse. The forward ap-
proach, such as can be accomplished with modeling, allows us
to predict the effect of various physiological processes on
features of the surface EMG. The inverse approach uses the
EMG to identify the underlying physiology. The inverse ap-
proach, however, requires simplifications to reduce the number
of parameters and multiple solutions that influence the associ-
ation. The relation between average conduction velocity of the
muscle fibers and spectral frequencies of the surface EMG
during isometric contractions sustained at a constant force (3,
8, 56) is an example of a forward association; the physiology
Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: D. Farina, Diparti-
mento di Elettronica, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24,
Torino 10129, Italy (E-mail: dario.farina@polito.it).
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determines the EMG characteristics. The inverse problem in-
volves estimating changes in the average conduction velocity
from the characteristic spectral frequencies and can be solved
by approximating this relation with a linear equation. A limi-
tation of inverse models is that approximations are valid for
specific conditions and cannot be applied to more general
situations, which can result in misleading conclusions. The
situation is confounded when some of the factors that influence
features of the signal have counterintuitive or unexpected
effects.
The application of mathematical models (10, 27, 31) has
proven useful in characterizing the sensitivity of the surface
EMG to the parameters of the systems involved in the gener-
ation and detection of the signal. Structure-based models, for
example, can now describe the generation of the surface EMG
in complex volume conductors (31) as a consequence of
various control strategies (35, 46, 84). Although the use of
these tools has clarified the limitations associated with the
measurement and interpretation of the surface EMG, these
limitations are often not appreciated by the experimentalist.
The aim of this brief review was to characterize the strengths
and weaknesses of some of the methods used to infer central
control strategies from bipolar recordings of the surface EMG.
The review focuses on the global surface EMG and does not
relate, except for a brief note, to more advanced methods for
extracting information on single MUs from noninvasive re-
cordings, which have been addressed in recent reviews (19, 54,
55, 85, 86). The review is not exhaustive, but it examines
topical issues related to the interpretation of the surface EMG
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INTERPRETATION OF THE SURFACE EMG
by focusing on the limitations of some methods as they are
used to extract information from the surface EMG.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE SURFACE EMG
The features of the EMG signal depend on many “nonphysi-
ological” factors (Table 1). The influence of these factors has been
measured, simulated, and discussed (22, 29, 30, 41, 49, 71). Some
of these effects are not intuitive and vary with experimental
conditions. Nonetheless, useful information can be extracted from
the surface EMG, especially when the experimental protocol
permits some of these factors to be minimized. The influence of
some of these factors can be reduced significantly by appropriate
placement of the electrodes. Because different electrode locations
over the same muscle can provide signals with significantly
different features, some locations are preferred over others (41,
71). For this reason, placement of the electrodes should always be
reported in EMG studies.
Crosstalk
Of the nonphysiological factors listed in Table 1, crosstalk
provides an example of how intuitive considerations can be
incorrect when dealing with phenomena that are influenced by
Table 1. Factors that influence the surface EMG
Factors That Influence the Surface EMG
Nonphysiological
Anatomic Shape of the volume conductor
Thickness of the subcutaneous tissue layers
Tissue inhomogeneities
Distribution of the motor unit territories in
the muscle
Size of the motor unit territories
Distribution and number of fibers in the
motor unit territories
Length of the fibers
Spread of the endplates and tendon
junctions within the motor units
Spread of the innervation zones and tendon
regions among motor units
Presence of more than one pinnation angle
Detection system Skin-electrode contact (impedance, noise)
Spatial filter for signal detection
Interelectrode distance
Electrode size and shape
Inclination of the detection system relative
to muscle fiber orientation
Location of the electrodes over the muscle
Geometrical Muscle fiber shortening
Shift of the muscle relative to the detection
system
Physical Conductivities of the tissues
Amount of crosstalk from nearby muscles
Physiological
Fiber membrane properties Average muscle fiber conduction velocity
Distribution of motor unit conduction
velocities
Distribution of conduction velocities of the
fibers within the motor units
Shape of the intracellular action potentials
Motor unit properties Number of recruited motor units
Distribution of motor unit discharge rates
Statistics and coefficient of variation for
discharge rate
Motor unit synchronization
EMG, electromyogram.
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1487
the properties of the volume conductor. Crosstalk refers to a
signal recorded over one muscle that is actually generated by a
nearby muscle and conducted through the intervening volume
to the recording electrodes (15). Many investigators assume
that a crosstalk signal has “a lower frequency spectrum because
it originates further away and will be subject to additional
low-pass filtering due to spatial filtering” (14). According to
this rationale, high-pass filtering should reduce crosstalk; how-
ever, this is not a general finding. Recordings of muscle fiber
action potentials are influenced by two events: propagation
along the fiber and extinction at the end of the fiber. With an
increase in the distance between the recording electrodes and
the active muscle fibers, the nonpropagating components due
to extinction of the action potentials (40) dominate those due to
propagation (29). Because the high-frequency components of
the nonpropagating signals are greater than those for the
propagating signals, crosstalk signals can have a broader band-
width than signals detected directly over an active muscle (17,
29). Because of this effect, high-pass filtering can have no
effect on crosstalk (Fig. 1).
Alternatively, the presence of crosstalk has been estimated
by calculating the cross-correlation coefficient between the
signals detected from two muscles (1, 59, 61, 83). Journals that
specialize in EMG measurements, for example, often recom-
mend the use of cross-correlation analysis, as suggested by
Winter et al. (83), as the standard for detecting crosstalk.
However, the cross-correlation analysis is not a valid measure
of the presence or absence of crosstalk (29, 51), as indicated in
Fig. 1C.
A recent experimental study (29) and simulation analyses
(17, 28, 51) suggest several conclusions about crosstalk: 1)
signals detected far from the source are mainly due to the
extinction of the action potentials at the ends of the fibers; 2)
because of differences in the sources of the propagating and
nonpropagating signals, the cross-correlation coefficient is
generally not indicative of the amount of crosstalk; 3) the
frequency content of an EMG signal does not identify the
presence of crosstalk; 4) temporal high-pass filtering of surface
EMG can fail to reduce crosstalk signals; and 5) the use of
spatial filtering as a method to decrease crosstalk remains to be
validated because the theoretical analyses of spatial filters have
been limited to propagating signals (18, 69, 70).
INFERRING NEURAL CONTROL STRATEGIES FROM THE
SURFACE EMG
Various methods have been used to infer details about the
signals discharged from the spinal cord to activate muscle.
These techniques, however, have various limitations that are
often not appreciated.
Amplitude of the Surface EMG
The amplitude of the surface EMG can be estimated by a
scheme of demodulation, smoothing, and relinearization. In
this process, demodulation rectifies the EMG and then raises
the result to a power (e.g., 1 for the average rectified value or
2 for the root mean square value), smoothing filters the signal,
and relinearization inverts the power law applied during the
demodulation stage and returns the signal to units of EMG
amplitude.
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1488 INTERPRETATION OF THE SURFACE EMG

Fig. 1. The influence of the distance between the recording electrodes and active muscle fibers on the surface electromyogram. A:
section of a volume conductor comprised of bone, muscle, fat, and skin layers (31) with pairs of electrodes placed on the skin at
2 locations. The muscle comprised 150 motor units (MUs) with the innervation number ranging from 50 to 800. B: the surface
electromyogram was recorded with a pair of electrodes 10 mm apart and placed between the center of the innervation zone and the
tendon junction. The muscle fibers were 110 mm in length, and there was a scatter of 5 mm for both the endplates and the tendon
endings. C: simulated surface EMG signals as detected over (location 1) and far (location 2) from the active muscle. Signals
detected concurrently at the two recording sites are reported as interference data (without any filtering) and after differentiation with
respect to time, as suggested in Winter et al. (83) (sampling frequency 1,024 Hz). The amplitude of the signals is indicated in
arbitrary units (au), with a scale of 1 au for the signals detected at location 1 and 0.05 au for those detected at location 2. The
correlation coefficient (CC) between the recordings for the 2 locations was low, both before and after time differentiation.
Moreover, high-pass filtering (differentiation) increased the amount of crosstalk, as indicated by the ratio of the average rectified
value (ARV) of the signal detected over the muscle (ARVmus) relative to that far away (ARVcro). D: an action potential for a single
MU as detected at the 2 locations. The shape of the potential recorded at location 1 is dominated by the propagating component,
whereas the shape recorded at location 2 is largely due to the nonpropagating (extinction) component.

The amplitude of the surface EMG is related to the net MU
activity; that is, the recruitment and the discharge rates of the
active MUs. Because of this relation, some investigators use
EMG amplitude as an index of the level of activation provided
by the spinal cord. As listed in Table 1, however, EMG
amplitude is influenced by such factors as electrode location,
thickness of the subcutaneous tissues, distribution of MU
conduction velocities, and the detection system used to obtain
the recording. Although some of these effects can be reduced
by appropriate placement of the electrodes (30, 41), there
remains a mismatch between the output of the spinal cord and
the EMG amplitude.
Amplitude cancellation. The surface EMG underestimates
the activation signal sent from the spinal cord to muscle as a
result of the cancellation of positive and negative phases of
MU action potentials (13) (Fig. 2). The amount of signal
cancellation can be quantified by comparing the signal ampli-
tude obtained by summing MU action potentials before and
after the rectification of each potential (13, 44). Cancellation is
present when the unrectified action potentials are summed but
not when the rectified potentials are summed. These results
indicate that, although the amplitude of the surface EMG
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increases monotonically with the neural drive to a muscle, a
general relation cannot be determined.
Amplitude cancellation depends on many of the factors
listed in Table 1 (44) and indicates that comparable levels of
average rectified EMG, either in different subjects or on
different occasions, do not necessarily indicate similar levels of
output from the spinal cord (Fig. 2). Furthermore, changes in
the average rectified or root mean square EMG values after an
intervention may not rigorously reflect altered levels of neural
drive to the muscle. Similarly, the so-called measure of neu-
romuscular efficiency (16, 58), which corresponds to the ratio
between an exerted force and the amplitude of a surface EMG,
and other such indexes suffer from the dependence of ampli-
tude cancellation on factors that can have nothing to do with
the amplitude of the activation signal (44). The extensive use
of such indexes in basic and clinical studies underscores the
lack of appreciation for the significance of signal cancellation.
Estimation of muscle force. Both the force exerted by a
muscle and the amplitude of the surface EMG depend on the
number of recruited MUs and the discharge rate of each active
MU. Accordingly, it is reasonable to expect that muscle force
can be estimated from the surface EMG. Because of amplitude
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Fig. 2. Simulation of amplitude cancellation. The simulations involved 2 of
the MUs from the study described in Fig. 1 (nu ⫽ normalized units). An
interference signal was simulated with each MU independently. Contraction
intensity (Excitation level) was varied by repeating the number of times (from
50 to 1,000 in steps of 50) that the MU action potential occurred within a 5-s
interval. Occurrence times were distributed randomly. A: the 2 MU potentials
and representative signals generated at different levels of excitation with MU
2. Even at excitation level 2 (100 MU action potentials), examples of phase
cancellation are clearly visible. B: the average rectified value of the signals,
normalized relative to the first excitation level, is plotted against the excitation
level. The signal amplitude does not increase linearly with excitation level
because of the cancellation of positive and negative phases of the waveforms.
Moreover, amplitude cancellation depended on the waveform selected and the
assigned conduction velocity (3 or 5 m/s). At the maximal level of excitation,
for example, amplitude could differ by ⬃30% in the different conditions,
although the amount of excitation was the same in all cases. The magnitude of
this effect is greater in an actual muscle (13).
cancellation, however, the amplitude change of the surface
EMG actually underestimates the associated change in MU
activity underlying the modulation of muscle force.
Many factors influence the relation between EMG amplitude
and force (Table 1). When muscles and subjects are compared,
these factors include the thickness of subcutaneous tissue, the
recruitment strategy, the peak discharge rates of the different
MUs (35), and so on. Moreover, the same control strategy may
generate signals with different amplitude trends depending on
the locations of the active MUs within the muscle (24). Be-
cause of the many factors that can influence this relation, there
is no reason to expect that a specific EMG amplitude-force
relation should have general validity. This relation should be
identified on a subject-by-subject and muscle-by-muscle basis.
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Spectral Analysis of the Surface EMG
Spectral analysis of surface EMG signals has been used to
study muscle fatigue (56) and to infer changes in MU recruit-
ment (6, 7, 73). Characteristic spectral frequencies can be
computed by the classic periodogram (57) and autoregressive-
based approaches (66) or by advanced methods such as Co-
hen’s class time-frequency distributions (12) and wavelet anal-
ysis (43). The latter techniques have been used with dynamic
(5, 12) and isometric contractions (42) and may be more
appropriate than the classic approaches when the signals are
nonstationary. However, the critical limitations in the spectral
analysis of the surface EMG are intrinsic to the properties of
the surface EMG signals and not the type of signal analysis.
Relation between spectral frequencies and conduction ve-
locity. The relation between the average conduction velocity of
the muscle fibers (4) and power spectral frequencies is used to
study muscle fatigue, to identify the type of MUs recruited, and
to describe the pattern of MU activity. The results, however,
are only relevant when specific conditions are met. The relative
changes in the spectral frequencies and conduction velocity
during sustained isometric contractions at moderate to high
intensities, for example, can be approximated by a linear
relation (3, 56). Indeed, under ideal conditions, it can be
shown that conduction velocity scales the power spectrum
(50). Nonetheless, it is inappropriate to use this relation
when the number of active MUs changes significantly dur-
ing the contraction (25).
Spectral analysis of the surface EMG has also been used to
estimate the activation of type I and II muscle fibers and the
recruitment of MUs during a contraction (9, 37, 38, 74, 79).
The rationale for these applications is that muscle fiber diam-
eter, and hence conduction velocities of MUs, vary systemat-
ically with MU type and that the discharge rates have only a
minor effect on the power spectrum (48). Four physiological
details, however, confound this rationale. First, the two main
fiber types do not have clearly distinct conduction velocities,
but rather conduction velocity has a continuous distribution
with a single peak (76) and in some muscles the diameter of
type I fibers is larger than that of type II fibers. Thus distin-
guishing the proportion of the two fiber types on the basis of
conduction velocity can be arbitrary. Second, the number of
muscle fibers innervated by a MU has a skewed distribution
(21), which must be considered when using the average con-
duction velocity to estimate the proportion of MU types active
in a contraction. For example, the first dorsal interosseus
muscle comprises an equal number of type I and II fibers, but
⬃84% of the MUs are slow contracting and fatigue resistant,
whereas only 16% are fast contracting. Conversely, 75% of the
motoneurons innervating the triceps brachii muscle innervate
type I fibers, which represent only 33% of the fibers in the
muscle (21). Third, the conduction velocity of single MUs
changes with discharge rate (64), which means that the contri-
bution of a MU to the average conduction velocity varies with
discharge rate. Fourth, the shortening of muscle fibers during a
dynamic contraction influences conduction velocity (47).
In addition to the physiology, the effect of the volume
conductor on the action potentials further complicates the use
of spectral analysis to estimate MU features (Fig. 3). This
effect is not dependent on the MU type but only on the location
and anatomy of the active muscle fibers within the muscle and
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1490 INTERPRETATION OF THE SURFACE EMG

Fig. 3. Simulations of single MU action potentials as detected by a pair of electrodes located between the innervation zone and the
tendon. The MU, which was located in 3 positions within the muscle, had a circular territory (2-mm radius) and innervated 250
muscle fibers with a density of 20 fibers/mm2. A: the volume conductor was cylindrical and layered (31). Locations 1 and 2 were
at the same distance from the detection point, whereas location 3 was 4 mm deeper. Four anatomic conditions have been simulated
corresponding to fiber lengths (L) of 130 and 50 mm and fat layers of 1 and 4 mm in thickness. Conduction velocity was 4 m/s.
B: the detected MU potentials were normalized relative to the maximal value. The duration of the potentials and the relative weight
of the nonpropagating (end-of-fiber) components were influenced by the anatomic parameters. C and D: the power spectral densities
of the MU potentials were normalized relative to the maximal value. For each power spectrum, the mean frequency is shown to
indicate the frequency around which the spectrum of the MU potential was concentrated. Because of the minor effect of discharge
rate on the power spectrum, the power spectrum of the interference EMG signal can be approximated by the sum of the power
spectra of the MU potentials (48). The bandwidth of the power spectrum was broader for shorter fibers (D vs. C). Because the
distance from the detection system is not the only parameter to influence the power spectrum, the power spectra for locations 1 and
2 were not identical. Although the depth of the source may decrease mean frequency, the mean frequency may increase for large
distances, especially when the fibers are short, because of the prevalence of nonpropagating components (see also Fig. 1). Despite
a constant conduction velocity, the frequency bandwidths were significantly different in the 12 cases (2 fiber lengths ⫻ 3
locations ⫻ 2 fat thicknesses). Depending on the anatomy and the location of the MU, the power spectrum of the detected action
potential will be concentrated between 60 and 150 Hz.

the properties of the volume conductor. For example, differ-
ences in fiber length influence action potential shape (location
3 in Fig. 3B) and the associated power spectra (Fig. 3, C and
D). Thus the use of spectral characteristics to infer the propor-
tion of a MU type that is activated during a contraction is often
flawed.
Because variation in muscle fiber conduction velocity has
been proposed as an index of MU recruitment according to the
size principle (2), it has been suggested that shifts in the mean
or median frequencies should reflect the recruitment of pro-
gressively larger and faster MUs (6, 7). At the upper limit of
MU recruitment, therefore, these frequencies should reach a
plateau (or decrease) because subsequent increases in force are
due to rate coding only (48). On the basis of these presumed
associations, there are reports of differences in MU recruitment
strategies during motor skill acquisition and between the dom-
inant and nondominant arm (6, 7). Similar assumptions have
been used when processing nonstationary surface EMG signals
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during force modulation and fatigue, such as the joint analysis
of EMG spectrum and amplitude (JASA method) proposed by
Luttmann et al. (52).
Because of volume conductor effects, however, the recruit-
ment of a MU may contribute to either the high- or low-
frequency bands depending on factors other than conduction
velocity, such as the depth of the MU (Fig. 3). Thus the
recruitment of a MU with a high conduction velocity does not
necessarily increase the characteristic frequencies in the power
spectrum. Accordingly, a modeling study has shown that dif-
ferent recruitment strategies may lead to similar mean fre-
quency patterns (24). Furthermore, the diversity of experimen-
tal findings on changes in mean or median frequency with
increasing force underscores the equivocal basis of this ap-
proach; there are reports of an increase in the spectral variables
with increasing force level (36, 60), no increase in these
variables with force (67, 78), and a decrease with increasing
force (68, 81).
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Discharge rate. From simple mathematical derivations (48,
77, 82), the power spectral density of a train of MU action
potentials has two main components: the spectrum of the
surface detected action potential and the repetition rate of
action potentials. The second component represents peaks at
frequencies that are multiples of the average discharge rate.
Assuming that the trains of MU action potentials are indepen-
dent, their power spectra will add to form the spectrum for the
interference EMG signal. As a consequence, peaks at low
frequencies should be observable in the surface EMG spectrum
and indicate the average discharge rate of the active MUs.
Although some authors have used low-frequency peaks to
estimate mean discharge rate (39), at least five factors con-
found this association: 1) the scatter of the discharge rates
decreases peak amplitudes; 2) the coefficient of variation for
discharge times decreases the peaks at low frequencies; 3) the
surface-detected MU potentials have low energy at low fre-
quencies that correspond to the MU discharge rates; 4) the
inherent variance of estimation in the power spectral density
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1491
due to the stochastic nature of the surface EMG signals
introduces spurious peaks (26); and 5) the nonstationary be-
havior in the discharge statistics can markedly influence the
low-frequency portion of the EMG power spectral density (20).
Recently, rectification of the EMG signal has been suggested
as a method to enhance the low-frequency peaks and hence the
detection of average discharge rate (62). However, rectification
is a nonlinear operation and, from the theoretical point of view,
its use for enhancing the low-frequency peaks attributable to
the discharge statistics is not justified. Because rectification is
performed on the interference signal after the occurrence of
amplitude cancellation, the presence of repeating waveforms in
the EMG is not enhanced after rectification. As with amplitude
cancellation, this effect is more pronounced with increasing
numbers of MUs. Figure 4 demonstrates that signal rectifica-
tion may increase the low-frequency peaks in some conditions,
but not in general, and may easily lead to the detection of
low-frequency peaks that are not related to the average dis-
charge rate.

Fig. 4. Simulation of surface EMG signals at different contraction intensities with the model used in Fig. 1. The distribution of
discharge rates of the active MUs was determined as described in Fuglevand et al. (35). The upper limit of MU recruitment was
80% of the excitation level, and discharge rate increased at 0.3 pulses per second (pps)/excitation level. Discharge rate at
recruitment was 8 pps for all MUs. Four excitation levels were simulated: 15% (top row) and 35, 55, and 75% (bottom row). The
number of MUs activated at the four levels of excitation was 92, 121, 137, and 147. Mean discharge rate is indicated to the left
of each row. The coefficient of variation for discharge rate (variability) was assigned values of 0% (left), 10% (middle), and 20%
(right). The estimated power spectra for the 20-s simulations are shown (only in the frequency range 0–80 Hz) for both the
interference and rectified signals. The arrows indicate the mean discharge rates of the active MUs. Rectification enhanced the
low-frequency peaks in the spectra for low coefficients of variations and few active MUs. As the coefficient of variation approached
values observed experimentally (65), however, it was difficult to detect the peaks in the rectified EMG spectra because of discharge
rate variability. In many cases, peaks were evident in the interference signal but not the rectified signal spectra, because the model
of the surface electromyogram as the summation of action potential trains does not hold for the rectified signal.

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Cross-Correlation Analysis of the Surface EMG
When many MUs are synchronized between muscles, it has
been proposed that cross-correlation analysis between the sur-
face EMG recordings for the two muscles may be used to
assess the degree of synchronization (45). This technique
assumes a similarity in the shapes of the action potentials
discharged by the MUs in each muscle. However, the action
potentials detected on the skin over the two muscles are
presumably generated by MUs at different distances from the
detection surfaces and include differences in fiber length,
locations of the innervation and tendon zones, local properties
of the volume conductor (e.g., fat thickness), and anatomic
territories. Because these factors can all influence the shape of
surface-detected potentials, it seems unlikely that the cross-
correlation between the surface EMG signals can identify
coincidental discharges by the MUs in the two muscles.
If the “synchronized” MUs are both located close enough to
the detection points so that the signals are dominated by the
propagating components, the shapes of the action potentials of
MUs in the two muscles will be rather similar because of the
filtering effect of the volume conductor, despite differences in
the properties of the two MUs. As an example, the three MUs
simulated in Fig. 3B have a similar shape despite different
locations, fiber lengths, and thicknesses of the fat layer. The
cross-correlation coefficient between the MU potential in the
top left of Fig. 3B (location 1, Fat 1 mm, L 130 mm) and the
MU potential in the bottom right (location 3, Fat 4 mm, L 50
mm) was 0.88, which indicates that MUs with very different
properties may easily generate surface potentials with similar
shapes. Similarly, the potentials in Fig. 3 generated by the MU
with short fibers at the three locations have minimal correlation
coefficients of 0.78 or 0.89 for the thin or thick fat layers,

Fig. 5. Multichannel surface electromyogram to detect the activity of single MUs. A: surface electromyogram signals detected by
a matrix of 61 electrodes (5 columns ⫻ 13 rows with a 5-mm interelectrode distance in both the longitudinal and transverse
directions) from the biceps brachii muscle during a voluntary contraction at 5% of the maximal voluntary contraction force. The
signals were acquired with a single differential filter in the longitudinal direction. B–D: a double differentiation was applied offline
to the single differential signals to increase spatial resolution, and single MU potentials were automatically extracted and classified
as belonging to different MUs by a decomposition method for surface EMG signals (35a). Results for 3 MUs are shown. The
potentials classified as belonging to a specific MU are superimposed to show the shape similarity. The column of the matrix with
the potentials of maximum amplitude corresponds to the location of the MU over the skin plane. Increasing distance from the source
in the transverse direction decreases the amplitude of the potentials. Potentials detected along the fiber direction (i.e., by the
electrodes of a column) are similar in shape and delayed between each other when the electrodes are between the innervation zone
and the tendon. The detection with the 2-dimensional array allowed the identification of the location of the MUs over the skin plane
and the estimation of their anatomic properties, such as the location of the innervation zones. [Reprinted from Gazzoni et al. (35a),
with permission from Elsevier.]

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INTERPRETATION OF THE SURFACE EMG
respectively. This is why a large correlation between surface
EMG signals detected from different muscles was found in a
simulation study that examined the synchronization of MUs
between the muscles (51).
The cross-correlation function between signals detected
from two distant muscles is not influenced by crosstalk; when
the nonpropagating components dominate, the crosstalk com-
ponents are not correlated to the signals detected over the two
muscles (Fig. 1). For example, high peaks of the cross-corre-
lation function between surface EMG signals from different
muscles were observed when synchronization was simulated,
whereas the presence of crosstalk did not have a major influ-
ence on the cross-correlation function (51). As a consequence
of this finding, methods based on blind source separation for
reducing the effect of crosstalk on the measurement of syn-
chronization from a cross-correlation analysis are not neces-
sary (45). Moreover, the relatively large reduction in the
cross-correlation peak when these methods were applied to
signals detected from distant muscles (45) was probably an
effect introduced by the algorithm rather than due to a reduc-
tion in crosstalk.
Nonlinear Analysis of the Surface EMG
It has been proposed that central strategies can be examined
with variables extracted from the surface EMG by nonlinear
recurrence methods (63, 80). Webber et al. (80) reported that
subtle changes in surface EMG, because of force modulation,
could have a greater influence on the percentage of determin-
ism in the signal compared with an effect on the spectral
frequencies. It has also been speculated (33, 34) that the
percentage of determinism during fatiguing contractions
should be able to detect within-muscle synchronization of MUs
because the measurement reveals embedded determinisms in
an otherwise stochastic signal. Contrary to these expectations,
the percentage of determinism is highly correlated with char-
acteristic spectral frequencies and does not provide additional
information when synchronization is limited to values ob-
served in muscles of healthy subjects (23). In the presence of
high levels of synchronization, however, the recurrence anal-
ysis may provide more information about the degree of syn-
chronization than the spectral analysis (D. Farina and L.
Fattorini, unpublished observations). Although these results
suggest potential applications for this method, the recurrence
plot analysis must be validated with modeling studies before it
can be used to infer central control strategies (23).
Detecting Single MUs from the Surface EMG
Techniques for the analysis of single MU properties from
surface EMG signals have been developed recently, at least for
specific conditions (Fig. 5). These approaches are based on
multichannel surface EMG recordings (54, 86), which allow
the location of the innervation zones, fiber length, muscle fiber
conduction velocity, and the timing of action potentials for
single MUs to be determined (32, 53, 72, 75). With such
measurements, direct observation of the MU control strategies
can be assessed, which avoids the limitations associated with
the inverse modeling approach that is typical of the global
surface EMG analysis.
J Appl Physiol • VOL
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Invited Review
1493
SUMMARY
This brief review examined some of the methods used to
extract information on the neural control of movement from
surface EMG signals. The focus was on the global surface
EMG analysis. The topics addressed in the review comprised
methods that are currently used extensively in this field, with
an emphasis on the critical assumptions underlying some of
these approaches. The limitations of these techniques are often
not appreciated, which sometimes leads to erroneous interpre-
tation of the results and conflicting reports in the literature. The
review was intended to highlight the limitations of some
surface-EMG measurements that are used to identify the phys-
iological mechanisms responsible for the neural control of
movement.
GRANTS
This work was partially supported by the European Shared Cost Project
“Neuromuscular Assessment in the Elderly Worker” (NEW) (contract no.
QLRT-2000-00139) (to D. Farina and R. Merletti) and by National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke Award NS-42734 (to R. M. Enoka).
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