ArticlePLoS computational biology2019
Amplitude cancellation influences the association between frequency components in the neural drive to muscle and the rectified EMG signal.
Article in PLoS computational biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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19 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Stroke Increases Neuromuscular Fatigability in Females but not Males during Isometric Exercise.Medicine and science in sports and exercise · 2026Article
- In vivo tibialis anterior muscle mechanics through force estimation using ankle joint moment and shear wave elastography.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Motor control enhancements by sub-threshold mechanical noise applied to foot soles during quiet standing.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Task-dependent frequency of intermuscular coherence in the presence of transcutaneous electrical spinal cord stimulation: a feasibility study.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- The gated cascade diffusion model: An integrated theory of decision making, motor preparation, and motor execution.Psychological review · 2024Article
- Adaptive gait responses to varying weight-bearing conditions: Inferences from gait dynamics and H-reflex magnitude.Experimental physiology · 2024Article
- Control of motor output during steady submaximal contractions is modulated by contraction history.Experimental brain research · 2024Article
- Boys-men mean-power-frequency differences in progressive exercise to exhaustion, confounded by variability and adiposity.European journal of applied physiology · 2024Article
- Combined effect of contraction type and intensity on corticomuscular coherence during isokinetic plantar flexions.European journal of applied physiology · 2023Article
- A real-time and convex model for the estimation of muscle force from surface electromyographic signals in the upper and lower limbs.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Modulations in motor unit discharge are related to changes in fascicle length during isometric contractions.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2022Article
- People with chronic low back pain display spatial alterations in high-density surface EMG-torque oscillations.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Sex differences in the detection of motor unit action potentials identified using high-density surface electromyography.Journal of electromyography and kinesiology : official journal of the International Society of Electrophysiological Kinesiology · 2022Article
- Estimating muscle activation from EMG using deep learning-based dynamical systems models.Journal of neural engineering · 2022Article
- Reconstruction of net force fluctuations from surface EMGs of multiple muscles in steady isometric plantarflexion.Experimental brain research · 2021Article
- Does strict validation criteria for individual motor units alter population-based regression models of the motor unit pool?Experimental brain research · 2020Article
- Parkinson's Disease Exhibits Amplified Intermuscular Coherence During Dynamic Voluntary Action.Frontiers in neurology · 2020Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
The rectified surface EMG signal is commonly used as an estimator of the neural drive to muscles and therefore to infer sources of synaptic input to motor neurons. Loss of EMG amplitude due to the overlap of motor unit action potentials (amplitude cancellation), however, may distort the spectrum of the rectified EMG and thereby its correlation with the neural drive. In this study, we investigated the impact of amplitude cancelation on this correlation using analytical derivations and a computational model of motor neuron activity, force, and the EMG signal. First, we demonstrated analytically that an ideal rectified EMG signal without amplitude cancellation (EMGnc) is superior to the actual rectified EMG signal as estimator of the neural drive to muscle. This observation was confirmed by the simulations, as the average coefficient of determination (r2) between the neural drive in the 1-30 Hz band and EMGnc (0.59±0.08) was matched by the correlation between the rectified EMG and the neural drive only when the level of amplitude cancellation was low (<40%) at low contraction levels (<5% of maximum voluntary contraction force; MVC). This correlation, however, decreased linearly with amplitude cancellation (r = -0.83) to values of r2 <0.2 at amplitude cancellation levels >60% (contraction levels >15% MVC). Moreover, the simulations showed that a stronger (i.e. more variable) neural drive implied a stronger correlation between the rectified EMG and the neural drive and that amplitude cancellation distorted this correlation mainly for low-frequency components (<5 Hz) of the neural drive. In conclusion, the results indicate that amplitude cancellation distorts the spectrum of the rectified EMG signal. This implies that valid use of the rectified EMG as an estimator of the neural drive requires low contraction levels and/or strong common synaptic input to the motor neurons.
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