title: Simulation of surface EMG for the analysis of muscle activity during whole body vibratory stimulation.
abstract: This study aims to reproduce the effect of motor-unit synchronization on surface EMG recordings during vibratory stimulation to highlight vibration evoked muscle activity. The authors intended to evaluate, through numerical simulations, the changes in surface EMG spectrum in muscles undergoing whole body vibration stimulation. In some specific bands, in fact, vibration induced motion artifacts are also typically present. In addition, authors meant to compare the simulated EMGs with respect to real recordings in order to discriminate the effect of synchronization of motor units discharges with vibration frequencies from motion artifacts. Computations were performed using a model derived from previous studies and modified to consider the effect of vibratory stimulus, the motor unit synchronization and the endplates-electrodes relative position on the EMG signal. Results revealed that, in particular conditions, synchronization of MUs' discharge generates visible peaks at stimulation frequency and its harmonics. However, only a part of the total power of surface EMGs might be enclosed within artifacts related bands (± 1 Hz centered at the stimulation frequency and its superior harmonics) even in case of strong synchronization of motor units discharges with the vibratory stimulus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies, University "Federico II" of Naples, Via Claudio, 21, 80125 Naples, Italy. Electronic address: a.fratini@unina.it.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fratini
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bifulco
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Clemente
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cesarelli
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D004566:Electrodes; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D009132:Muscles / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
keywords: EMG; Motion artifact; Motor unit synchronization; Whole body vibration