Automatic Identification of Individual Motor Unit Firing Accuracy From High-Density Surface Electromyograms

We introduce an algorithm for automatic identification of true positive (TP) and false positive (FP) spikes in the motor unit spike train, identified by blind source separation (BSS) of high-density surface electromyograms (HDsEMG). The algorithm selects predefined number of spikes, so called witnesses, from identified spike train. The other spikes in the spike train are called test spikes and are classified into TP or FP spikes by our algorithm. For this purpose, the algorithm constructs as many motor unit filters as there are test spikes, using the information from all the witnesses and each individual test spike. Afterwards, it applies each motor unit filter to HDsEMG to get new estimate of MU spike train for each selected test spike and calculates previously introduced Pulse-to-Noise Ratio (PNR) on preselected witnesses in this new spike train. When accumulated over all the test spikes, these PNR values exhibit bimodal distribution with the peak at lower PNR values representing FPs and the peak at higher PNR values representing TPs. Therefore, FPs and TPs can be discriminated by applying computationally efficient segmentation algorithm to corresponding PNR values. We also propose and mutually compare different witness selection strategies and show that selection of about 40 spikes with maximal amplitude in the identified spike train minimizes the selection of FPs as witnesses and maximizes the TP vs. FP discrimination power. In our tests on 20 s long experimental HDsEMG signals from biceps brachii muscle the number of FPs decreased from 23.9 ± 4.7 to 4.1 ± 4.4 when the proposed algorithm was used.