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Validating motor unit firing patterns extracted by EMG signal decomposition

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Abstract

Motor unit (MU) firing pattern information can be used clinically or for physiological investigation. It can also be used to enhance and validate electromyographic (EMG) signal decomposition. However, in all instances the validity of the extracted MU firing patterns must first be determined. Two supervised classifiers that can be used to validate extracted MU firing patterns are proposed. The first classifier, the single/merged classifier (SMC), determines whether a motor unit potential train (MUPT) represents the firings of a single MU or the merged activity of more than one MU. The second classifier, the single/contaminated classifier (SCC), determines whether the estimated number of false-classification errors in a MUPT is acceptable or not. Each classifier was trained using simulated data and tested using simulated and real data. The accuracy of the SMC in categorizing a train correctly is 99% and 96% for simulated and real data, respectively. The accuracy of the SCC is 84% and 81% for simulated and real data, respectively. The composition of these classifiers, their objectives, how they were trained, and the evaluation of their performances using both simulated and real data are presented in detail.

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Notes

  1. These signals and more information about them are available from: http://emglab.net/emglab/Signals/N2001/index.html.

Abbreviations

CasC:

Contaminated trains classified as a contaminated train

CV:

Coefficient of variation

CVL :

Lower CV

CVU :

Upper CV

EFE:

Error-filtering estimation

EMG:

Electromyographic

FCE:

False-classification error

FLDA:

Fisher linear discriminate analysis

FR-MCD:

Firing rate mean consecutive difference

IDI:

Inter-discharge interval

ID rate:

Identification rate

IDI-MCD:

IDI mean consecutive difference

LIDIR :

Lower IDI ratio

MasM:

Merged trains classified as a merged train

MCE:

Missed classification error

MVC:

Maximum voluntary contraction

MU:

Motor unit

MUP:

Motor unit potential

MUPT:

Motor unit potential train

PD:

Pattern discovery

PI:

Percentage of inconsistent IDIs

SasS:

Single trains classified as a single train

SCC:

Single/contaminated classifier

SMC:

Single/merged classifier

SVMs :

Support vector machines

r 1 :

First coefficient of serial correlation

μ:

The mean of IDIs of a MUPT

μLoc :

Local mean of IDIs of a MUPT

σ:

The standard deviation of the IDIs of a MUPT

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Systems Design Engineering Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

    Hossein Parsaei, Faezeh Jahanmiri Nezhad & Daniel W. Stashuk

  2. Math and Computer Science, Mount Allison University, Sackville, Canada

    Andrew Hamilton-Wright

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  1. Hossein Parsaei
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  2. Faezeh Jahanmiri Nezhad
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  3. Daniel W. Stashuk
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  4. Andrew Hamilton-Wright
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Correspondence to Hossein Parsaei.

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Parsaei, H., Nezhad, F.J., Stashuk, D.W. et al. Validating motor unit firing patterns extracted by EMG signal decomposition. Med Biol Eng Comput 49, 649–658 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-010-0703-1

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