Comparison of Blind Source Separation Methods to Surface Electromyogram for Extensor Muscles of the Index and Little Fingers

Crosstalk is the result of the propagation of muscle electrical signals on surface electromyogram channels simultaneously. The objective of this paper is to study the behavior of three blind source separation (BSS) methods for crosstalk reduction during finger extensor muscle contractions: FastICA, joint diagonalization of covariance matrices and optimal filtering. These methods have been tested on artificial mixtures defined by a temporal sum of the real signals from isolated contraction of two independent biomechanical muscles for the extension of the index and little finger. Artificial mixtures display a ground truth for comparison between the methods. The separation was better using the optimal filtering compared to the other two methods. The optimal filtering have then be tested on real mixtures recorded during a simultaneous contraction of the two muscles. The results are less satisfactory but open doors to new perspectives.