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Surface Electromyography to Study Muscle Coordination

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Book cover Handbook of Human Motion

Abstract

Electromyography (EMG) records the electrical activity that is generated as action potentials propagate along the length of muscle fibers. As such surface EMG is the research tool that is used in a vast majority of the works that assess muscle coordination in health and disease. Although surface EMG recordings can provide valuable information regarding the neural activation of a muscle by the nervous system, there are multiple factors that need to be considered to ensure that the interpretation of the data is accurate. In this chapter, we have highlighted crosstalk, signal cancellation, normalization, computation signal, detection of the onset/offset times, and the misinterpretation of EMG to infer torque as six of the most significant factors that need to be considered when recording and then interpreting EMG data. These factors need to be considered before data is collected, to determine if EMG is the right tool and/or which processing methods may best provide insight into the research question.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Here we consider muscle coordination as the distribution of muscle activation or force among individual muscles to produce a given motor task.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory “Movement, Interaction, Performance” (EA4334), University of Nantes, 25 bis bd Guy Mollet, BP 72206, 44000, Nantes, France

    François Hug

  2. NHMRC Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Spinal Pain, Injury and Health, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    François Hug & Kylie Tucker

  3. School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Kylie Tucker

Authors
  1. François Hug
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  2. Kylie Tucker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to François Hug .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Motion & More, Barcelona, Spain

    Bertram Müller

  2. Klinik für Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgi, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sebastian I. Wolf

  3. Institut for Biomechanics und Orthopedic, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Gert-Peter Brueggemann

  4. Houston, Texas, USA

    Zhigang Deng

  5. ACRISP, FedUniversity, Cremorne, New South Wales, Australia

    Andrew McIntosh

  6. Wilmington, Delaware, USA

    Freeman Miller

  7. Research, C-Motion, Inc., Germantown, Maryland, USA

    William Scott Selbie

Section Editor information

  1. Has-Motion Inc., 27 Sydenham Street, K7L3G8, Kingston, ON, Canada

    William Scott Selbie

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Hug, F., Tucker, K. (2016). Surface Electromyography to Study Muscle Coordination. In: Müller, B., et al. Handbook of Human Motion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30808-1_184-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30808-1_184-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30808-1

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