Abstract

So far, surface electromyography (sEMG) has been the method of choice to detect and evaluate muscle fatigue. However, recent advancements in non-cryogenic quantum sensors, such as optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs), enable interesting possibilities to flexibly record biomagnetic signals. Yet, a magnetomyographic investigation of muscular fatigue is still missing. Here, we simultaneously used sEMG (4 surface electrode) and OPM-based magnetomyography (OPM-MMG, 4 sensors) to detect muscle fatigue during a 3 × 1-min isometric contractions of the left rectus femoris muscle in 7 healthy participants. Both signals exhibited the characteristic spectral compression distinctive for muscle fatigue. OPM-MMG and sEMG slope values, used to quantify the spectral compression of the signals, were positively correlated, displaying similarity between the techniques. Additionally, the analysis of the different components of the magnetic field vector enabled speculations regarding the propagation of the muscle action potentials (MAPs). Altogether these results show the feasibility of the magnetomyographic approach with OPMs and propose a potential alternative to sEMG for the study of muscle fatigue.

Highlights

  • Muscle fatigue is defined as a decrease in maximal force production in response to sustained or repetitive muscular activity (Enoka and Duchateau, 2008; Wan et al, 2017)

  • Five of the original twelve subjects had to be discharged due to a significant data loss caused by the partial detachment of the EMG reference electrode

  • Spectral decomposition was performed on each component (X, Y, and Z directions) of the magnetic field vector

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Summary

Introduction

Muscle fatigue is defined as a decrease in maximal force production in response to sustained or repetitive muscular activity (Enoka and Duchateau, 2008; Wan et al, 2017). The mechanisms underlying this process are manifold. A phenomenon referred to as spectral compression (De Luca, 1993; Lowery et al, 2000) This result has been replicated several times (Viitasalo and Komi, 1977; Petrofsky et al, 1982; De Luca, 1984; Duchêne and Goubel, 1990; Doud and Walsh, 1995; Lowery et al, 2000; Beck et al, 2014) confirming the validity of this measure for the evaluation of muscle fatigue (Cifrek et al, 2009). In spite of the recognized reliability of sEMG, the last few decades have seen the progressive development and miniaturization of magnetic sensors (Zuo et al, 2020), for the study of muscle activity

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