Simulated surface EMG signal as a function of physiological and non physiological parameters: Analyze and interpretation

The purpose of this study was to estimate the effects of some anatomical, physiological and detection system parameters on the root mean square (RMS) and the total power (TTP) of simulated surface electromyographic (EMG) signals generated in a cylindrical multilayer volume conductor represents the limb muscle. These signals were detected by the longitudinal single differential (LSD), transversal double Differential (TDD), maximum kurtosis filter (MKF) and the three rings (3RGs) spatial filters. The investigated parameters were: the skin and fat thicknesses, the mean motor unit (MU) diameters, the mean MU firing rates, the inter-electrode distance and the radius of the circular electrode. Our results showed that, the RMS and the TTP of the detected surface EMG signals decrease with the increase of the skin and fat layer thicknesses and the radius of the circular electrode. But, they increase with the increase of the mean MU diameters, and the mean MU firing rates and the inter-electrode distance. Especially with the MKF filter, the RMS and TTP values increase until the distance between the electrodes reach 15 mm and then they start to decrease.