Decomposition of multiunit electromyographic signals

The authors have developed a comprehensive technique to identify single motor unit (SMU) potentials and to decompose overlapped electromyographic (EMG) signals into their constituent SMU potentials. This technique is based on one-channel EMG recordings and is easily implemented for many clinical EMG tests. There are several distinct features of the authors' technique: (1) it measures waveform similarity of SMU potentials in the wavelet domain, which gives this technique significant advantages over other techniques; (2) it classifies spikes based on the nearest neighboring algorithm, which is less sensitive to waveform variation; (3) it can effectively separate compound potentials based on a maximum signal energy deduction algorithm, which is fast and relatively reliable; and (4) it also utilizes the information on discharge regularities of SMU's to help correct possible decomposition errors. The performance of this technique has been evaluated by using simulated EMG signals composed of up to eight different discharging SMU's corrupted with white noise, and also by using real EMG signals recorded at levels up to 50% maximum voluntary contraction. The authors believe that it is a very useful technique to study SMU discharge patterns and recruitment of motor units in patients with neuromuscular disorders in clinical EMG laboratories.