Electromyographic indices of muscle fatigue of a severely paralyzed chronic stroke patient undergoing upper limb motor rehabilitation

Abstract

Modern approaches to motor rehabilitation of severe upper limb paralysis in chronic stroke decode movements from electromyography for controlling rehabilitation orthoses. Muscle fatigue is a phenomenon that influences these neurophysiological signals and may diminish the decoding quality. Characterization of these potential signal changes during movement patterns of rehabilitation training could therefore help improve the decoding accuracy. In the present work we investigated how electromyographic indices of muscle fatigue in the Deltoid Anterior muscle evolve during typical forward reaching movements of a rehabilitation training in healthy subjects and a stroke patient. We found that muscle fatigue in healthy subjects changed the neurophysiological signal. In the patient, however, no consistent change was observed over several sessions.