Towards a Simplified Estimation of Muscle Activation Pattern from MRI and EMG Using Electrical Network and Graph Theory

Muscle functional MRI (mfMRI) is an imaging technique that assess muscles’ activity, exploiting a shift in the T2-relaxation time between resting and active state on muscles. It is accompanied by the use of electromyography (EMG) to have a better understanding of the muscle electrophysiology; however, a technique merging MRI and EMG information has not been defined yet. In this paper, we present an anatomical and quantitative evaluation of a method our group recently introduced to quantify its validity in terms of muscle pattern estimation for four subjects during four isometric tasks. Muscle activation pattern are estimated using a resistive network to model the morphology in the MRI. An inverse problem is solved from sEMG data to assess muscle activation. The results have been validated with a comparison with physiological information and with the fitting on the electrodes space. On average, over 90% of the input sEMG information was able to be explained with the estimated muscle patterns. There is a match with anatomical information, even if a strong subjectivity is observed among subjects. With this paper we want to proof the method’s validity showing its potential in diagnostic and rehabilitation fields.

The Effect of External Weight Distribution on Muscle Activation Pattern during Obstacle Negotiation for Male Participants

Effects of different age groups and different external loading distribution on lower extremity muscle activation during obstacle crossing tasks were tested in this study. Four young participants and five healthy senior participants performed different walking tasks at their own speed carrying multiple different weights while their lower extremity muscle activation patterns were recorded and compared. Older adults showed significantly increased muscle activation patterns in obstacle negotiation. Furthermore, participants showed altered lower extremity muscle activation patterns with different load distribution.