Automatic measurement of on/off periods of EMG activity

A computer-based system was designed and implemented for automatically measuring the periods of EMG burst that show periodic but occasionally irregular and large fluctuations in amplitude during mastication. The reliability of the current measuring system was examined. The EMG data was recorded from the inferior orbicularis oris (OI) muscle and the anterior belly of the digastric (DG) muscle by means of surface electrodes. Applying the current method to the human masticatory and perioral muscle activity during chewing revealed that the absolute differences between human- and computer-determined measurements did not differ significantly. We conclude that the proposed measuring system is effective for automatic measurement of on/off periods of EMG burst.