A wavelet based time frequency analysis of electromyograms to group steps of runners into clusters that contain similar muscle activation patterns

PLoS One. 2018 Apr 18;13(4):e0195125. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195125. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Purpose: To wavelet transform the electromyograms of the vastii muscles and generate wavelet intensity patterns (WIP) of runners. Test the hypotheses: 1) The WIP of the vastus medialis (VM) and vastus lateralis (VL) of one step are more similar than the WIPs of these two muscles, offset by one step. 2) The WIPs within one muscle differ by having maximal intensities in specific frequency bands and these intensities are not always occurring at the same time after heel strike. 3) The WIPs that were recorded form one muscle for all steps while running can be grouped into clusters with similar WIPs. It is expected that clusters might have distinctly different, cluster specific mean WIPs.

Methods: The EMG of the vastii muscles from at least 1000 steps from twelve runners were recorded using a bipolar current amplifier and yielded WIPs. Based on the weights obtained after a principal component analysis the dissimilarities (1-correlation) between the WIPs were computed. The dissimilarities were submitted to a hierarchical cluster analysis to search for groups of steps with similar WIPs. The clusters formed by random surrogate WIPs were used to determine whether the groups were likely to be created in a non-random manner.

Results: The steps were grouped in clusters showing similar WIPs. The grouping was based on the frequency bands and their timing showing that they represented defining parts of the WIPs. The correlations between the WIPs of the vastii muscles that were recorded during the same step were higher than the correlations of WPIs that were recorded during consecutive steps, indicating the non-randomness of the WIPs.

Conclusions: The spectral power of EMGs while running varies during the stance phase in time and frequency, therefore a time averaged power spectrum cannot reflect the timing of events that occur while running. It seems likely that there might be a set of predefined patterns that are used upon demand to stabilize the movement.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Athletes*
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Electromyography*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Muscle Contraction / physiology
  • Muscle, Skeletal / physiology*
  • Running*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This project was supported by Biomechanigg Sport & Health Research Inc. Calgary. The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors [MM, BMN], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. MU was a visiting student from Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, supervised by VVT and was supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes).