A Study on Muscle Fiber Number Estimation of ADM Muscle using Computer Simulation

This study suggested a new method to estimate muscle fiber number of ADM (abductor digiti minimi) muscle using surface electromyogram and muscle modeling. For muscle fiber number estimation, this study detected SMUAP (single motor unit action potential) by inducing the voluntary contraction of ADM muscle with less than 1% MVC (maximum voluntary contraction). The muscle fiber number was estimated as 93±16, while SMUAP depth and muscle fiber number were changed with 1,271 steps using the designed ADM-simulator. To estimate muscle fiber number, this study designed an ADM-simulator for ADM muscle with physiological parameters, such as conduction velocity and muscle length, and probability statistical parameters. The muscle fiber number was estimated with a method of seeking minimum MSE (mean square error) value considering the shapes and amplitude of signals from the simulated SMUAP and the SMUAP detected with surface electrodes. As the adjustment of various parameters can be carried out easily with the suggested method in this study, the results of this study are conjectured to be helpful to the electromyogram information processing research of human muscles.