Methods for automated delineation and assessment of EMG responses evoked by peripheral nerve stimulation in diagnostic and closed-loop therapeutic applications

Objective. Surface electromyography measurements of the Hoffmann (H-) reflex are essential in a wide range of neuroscientific and clinical applications. One promising emerging therapeutic application is H-reflex operant conditioning, whereby a person is trained to modulate the H-reflex, with generalized beneficial effects on sensorimotor function in chronic neuromuscular disorders. Both traditional diagnostic and novel realtime therapeutic applications rely on accurate definitions of the H-reflex and M-wave temporal bounds, which currently depend on expert case-by-case judgment. The current study automates such judgments. Approach. Our novel wavelet-based algorithm automatically determines temporal extent and amplitude of the human soleus H-reflex and M-wave. In each of 20 participants, the algorithm was trained on data from a preliminary 3 or 4 min recruitment-curve measurement. Output was evaluated on parametric fits to subsequent sessions’ recruitment curves (92 curves across all participants) and on the conditioning protocol’s subsequent baseline trials (∼1200 per participant) performed near H max . Results were compared against the original temporal bounds estimated at the time, and against retrospective estimates made by an expert 6 years later. Main results. Automatic bounds agreed well with manual estimates: 95% lay within ±2.5 ms. The resulting H-reflex magnitude estimates showed excellent agreement (97.5% average across participants) between automatic and retrospective bounds regarding which trials would be considered successful for operant conditioning. Recruitment-curve parameters also agreed well between automatic and manual methods: 95% of the automatic estimates of the current required to elicit H max fell within ± 1.4 % of the retrospective estimate; for the ‘threshold’ current that produced an M-wave 10% of maximum, this value was ± 3.5 % . Significance. Such dependable automation of M-wave and H-reflex definition should make both established and emerging H-reflex protocols considerably less vulnerable to inter-personnel variability and human error, increasing translational potential.