An alternative EMG normalization method: Heterogeneous recurrence quantification analysis of isometric maximum voluntary contraction movements

Abstract

This study presents an alternative method of normalizing Surface Electromyography (EMG) signals, which provide valuable insights into the musculoskeletal properties of the human body. Traditional normalization through the peak maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) method may result in variable outcomes due to its dependence on pre-processing steps such as smoothing and window length. To address this issue, the study standardizes the EMG pre-processing steps by using non-linear techniques, namely recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) and heterogeneous RQA (HRQA). RQA, specifically HRQA, functions as EMG feature extractors to explore the nonlinear dynamical system and state space trajectories of chaotic EMG signals. Principal component analysis (PCA) and kernel PCA (KPCA) were further applied to the RQA and HRQA results to obtain data with more information. The results show that the first principal components (PC1 and KPC1) of HRQA have a very strong relationship with peak MVC (ρ > |0.90|, p < 0.001), indicating their potential compared to the traditional EMG normalization technique for lower limb muscle groups. Additionally, the study investigated the dynamic differences among isometric MVC movements in lower limb muscle groups and found that the RQA and HRQA methods indicated a greater separation for detecting these differences compared to peak MVC. This study offers a valuable method for assessing the musculoskeletal characteristics of individuals who may have difficulty with activities like walking or providing maximum force during EMG data collection, such as those suffering from Parkinson's disease or walking disabilities. This enhances our understanding of their musculoskeletal properties.