title: Effect of number of motor units and muscle fibre type on surface electromyogram.
abstract: Reduction in number of motor units (nMU) and fast fibre ratio (FFR) is associated with disease or atrophy when this is rapid. There is a need to study the effect of nMU and FFR to analyse the association with ageing and disease. This study has developed a mathematical model to investigate the relationship between nMU and FFR on surface electromyogram (sEMG) of the biceps muscles. The model has been validated by comparing the simulation outcomes with experiments comparing the sEMG of physically active younger and older cohort. The results show that there is statistically significant difference between the two groups, and the simulation studies closely model the experimental results. This model can be applied to identify the cause of muscle weakness among the elderly due to factors such as muscle dystrophy or preferential loss of type F muscle fibres.
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. sridhar.arjunan@rmit.edu.au.
authors.forename: Sridhar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poosapadi Arjunan
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Dinesh Kant
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wheeler
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer and Control Engineering, Oita National College of Technology, Oita, Japan.
authors.forename: Hirokazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Ariba
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Siddiqi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004576:Electromyography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D018485:Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Age; Modelling; Muscle activity; Muscle type; sEMG