A new technique for the classification and decomposition of EMG signals

The shapes and firing rates of motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) in an electromyographic (EMG) signal provide an important source of information for the diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders. In order to extract this information from EMG signals recorded at force levels up to 20% of maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) it is required: (i) To identify the MUAPs composing the EMG signal, (ii) To classify MUAPs with similar shape and (iii) To decompose the superimposed MUAP waveforms into their constituent MUAPs. For the classification of MUAPs two different pattern recognition techniques are presented (i) An artificial neural network (ANN) technique based on unsupervised learning using the self-organizing feature maps (SOFM) algorithm and learning vector quantization (LVQ) and (ii) A statistical pattern recognition technique based on the euclidian distance. The success rate on real data for the ANN technique is about 96% and for the statistical one about 94%. For the decomposition of the superimposed waveforms the following technique is used: (i) Cross-correlation of each of the unique MUAP waveforms, obtained by the classification process with the superimposed waveforms in order to find the best matching point and (ii) A combination of euclidian distance and area measures in order to classify the components of the decomposed waveform. The success rate for the decomposition procedure is about 90%