Decomposição de sinais eletromiográficos de superfície misturados linearmente utilizando análise de componentes independentes

Abstract

Electromyography is a clinical practice that provides information regarding the physiological condition of the neuromuscular system, which includes the analysis of the contractile functional unit of the neuromuscular system, known as motor unit. The electromyographic signal is an electrical signal resultant from ionic transient regarding motor unit action potentials captured by invasive or non-invasive electrodes. Invasive electrodes are able to detect action potentials of even one motor unit, although the procedure is time consuming and uncomfortable. Surface electrodes enable detecting action potential noninvasively, although the detected signal is a mixture of action potentials from several motor units within the detection area of the electrode, resulting in a complex interference pattern which is difficult to interpret. Blind Source Separation techniques, such as Independent Component Analysis, have proven effective for decomposing surface electromyographic signals into the constituent motor unit action potentials. The objective of this project was to develop a system in order to capture surface myoelectric signals and to analyze the viability for decomposing intramuscular myoelectric signals that were mixed linearly, using independent component analyzes. The system includes an electrode matrix with up to seven channels, a preprocessing module, a software for controlling surface myoelectric signals capture, and the FastICA algorithm in MATLAB® for the intramuscular myoelectric signals decomposition. The results show that the system was able to capture surface myoelectric signals and was capable of decomposing the intramuscular myoelectric signals that were previously linearly mixed.