Method for EMG conduction velocity estimation which accounts for input and output noise

A new technique is derived for estimating the conduction velocity of muscle fibre action potentials from surface EMG recordings in humans. The method is based on system identification and extends previous such methods by explicitly accounting for additive noise at the output as well as at the input. Experimental and simulation results demonstrate that at moderate noise levels the new method yields estimates comparable to those obtained with previous methods. However, simulation studies show that the new method should be particularly valuable at high noise levels, where it should provide much better estimates than previous techniques provided that an adequate representation of the noise is available.