Control of functional electrical stimulation using motor unit action potentials
A therapeutic or diagnostic device comprises a wearable electrodes garment including electrodes disposed to contact skin when the wearable electrodes garment is worn, and an electronic controller operatively connected with the electrodes. The electronic controller is programmed to perform a method including: receiving surface electromyography (EMG) signals via the electrodes and extracting one or more motor unit (MU) action potentials from the surface EMG signals. The method may further include identifying an intended movement based at least on features representing the one or more extracted MU action potentials and delivering functional electrical stimulation (FES) effective to implement the intended movement via the electrodes of the wearable electrodes garment. The method may further include generating a patient performance report based at least on a comparison of features representing the one or more extracted MU action potentials and features representing expected and/or baseline MU action potentials for a known intended movement.
1 . A method comprising:
recording surface electromyography (EMG) activity from a target anatomy of a subject using an electrodes garment worn on the target anatomy and including electrodes disposed to contact skin of the target anatomy;
recording electroencephalography (EEG) activity of the subject concurrently with the recording of the surface EMG activity;
training at least one EMG decoder to decode surface EMG activity to determine at least one cortical motor intended movement of the target anatomy using the recorded surface EMG activity labeled with the cortical motor intended movements of the subject determined from the recorded EEG activity to generate at least one trained EMG decoder;
recording further surface EMG activity from the target anatomy of the subject using the electrodes garment wherein the further surface EMG activity is recorded without concurrently recording EEG activity;
using the at least one trained EMG decoder, determining information about a cortical motor intended movement of the target anatomy based on the recorded further surface EMG activity; and
based on the determined information, delivering functional electrical stimulation (FES) effective to implement the cortical motor intended movement via the electrodes of the electrodes garment;
wherein the determined information includes at least one of: a start time for the cortical motor intended movement, an end time for the cortical motor intended movement, and/or an FES pulse frequency for the delivered FES.
2 . The method of claim 1 wherein:
the determined information includes a start time for the cortical motor intended movement; and
the determining of the information includes determining the start time for the cortical motor intended movement based on desynchronization of cortical motor activity determined from motor unit action potentials firing extracted from the recorded further surface EMG activity.
3 . The method of claim 1 wherein:
the determined information includes an end time for the cortical motor intended movement; and
the determining of the information includes determining the end time for the cortical motor intended movement based on resynchronization of cortical motor activity determined from motor unit action potentials firing extracted from the recorded further surface EMG activity.
4 . The method of claim 1 wherein:
the determined information includes an FES pulse frequency for the delivered FES; and
the determining of the information includes determining the FES pulse frequency for the delivered FES based on a firing frequency of motor unit action potentials extracted from the recorded further surface EMG activity.
5 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
determining a motor unit (MU) action potentials firing rate from the further surface EMG activity; and
determining an FES pulse frequency based on the MU action potentials firing frequency;
wherein the FES is applied with the determined FES pulse frequency.
6 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
extracting one or more features indicative of MU action potentials from the further surface EMG activity;
determining start and end times for the further cortical motor intended movement based on the one or more features indicative of MU action potentials extracted from the further EMG activity;
wherein the FES is applied between the determined start and end times.
7 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
monitoring movement of the target anatomy to assess an execution of the further cortical motor intended movement; and
generating a performance report for the subject based on the further cortical motor intended movement and the monitoring.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the EEG signal acts as a ground truth during the training of the at least one EMG decoder.
9 . A method comprising:
recording surface electromyography (EMG) activity from a target anatomy of a subject using an electrodes garment worn on the target anatomy and including electrodes disposed to contact skin of the target anatomy;
recording electroencephalography (EEG) activity of the subject concurrently with the recording of the surface EMG activity;
training at least one EMG decoder to decode surface EMG activity to determine at least one cortical motor intended movement of the target anatomy using the recorded surface EMG activity labeled with the cortical motor intended movements of the subject determined from the recorded EEG activity to generate at least one trained EMG decoder;
recording further surface EMG activity from the target anatomy of the subject using the electrodes garment wherein the further surface EMG activity is recorded without concurrently recording EEG activity;
using the at least one trained EMG decoder, determining information about a cortical motor intended movement of the target anatomy based on the further surface EMG activity, the determined information including a start time for the cortical motor intended movement; and
based on the determined information, delivering functional electrical stimulation (FES) effective to implement the cortical motor intended movement via the electrodes of the electrodes garment.
10 . The method of claim 9 wherein:
the determining of the information includes determining the start time for the cortical motor intended movement based on desynchronization of cortical motor activity determined from motor unit action potentials firing extracted from the further surface EMG activity.
11 . The method of claim 9 wherein:
the determined information further includes an end time for the cortical motor intended movement; and
the determining of the information includes determining the end time for the cortical motor intended movement based on resynchronization of cortical motor activity determined from motor unit action potentials firing extracted from the further surface EMG activity.
12 . The method of claim 9 wherein:
the determined information further includes an FES pulse frequency for the delivered FES; and
the determining of the information includes determining the FES pulse frequency for the delivered FES based on a firing frequency of motor unit action potentials extracted from the further surface EMG activity.
13 . A method comprising:
recording surface electromyography (EMG) activity from a target anatomy of a subject using an electrodes garment worn on the target anatomy and including electrodes disposed to contact skin of the target anatomy;
recording electroencephalography (EEG) activity of the subject concurrently with the recording of the surface EMG activity;
training at least one EMG decoder to decode surface EMG activity to determine at least one cortical motor intended movement of the target anatomy using the recorded surface EMG activity labeled with the cortical motor intended movements of the subject determined from the recorded EEG activity to generate at least one trained EMG decoder;
recording further surface EMG activity from the target anatomy of the subject using the electrodes garment wherein the further surface EMG activity is recorded without concurrently recording EEG activity;
determining information about a cortical motor intended movement of the target anatomy based on the further surface EMG activity, the determined information including an end time for the cortical motor intended movement; and
based on the determined information, delivering functional electrical stimulation (FES) effective to implement the cortical motor intended movement via the electrodes of the electrodes garment.
14 . The method of claim 13 wherein:
the determining of the information includes determining the end time for the cortical motor intended movement based on resynchronization of cortical motor activity determined from motor unit action potentials firing extracted from the further surface EMG activity.
15 . The method of claim 13 wherein:
the determined information further includes a start time for the cortical motor intended movement; and
the determining of the information includes determining the start time for the cortical motor intended movement based on desynchronization of cortical motor activity determined from motor unit action potentials firing extracted from the further surface EMG activity.
16 . The method of claim 13 wherein:
the determined information further includes an FES pulse frequency for the delivered FES; and
the determining of the information includes determining the FES pulse frequency for the delivered FES based on a firing frequency of motor unit action potentials extracted from the further surface EMG activity.