University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Center for Human Movement Sciences, Groningen, the Netherlands.
University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Hum Mov Sci. 2020 Apr;70:102592. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2020.102592. Epub 2020 Feb 22.
Studies on myocontrolled assistive technology (AT), such as myoelectric prostheses, as well as rehabilitation practice using myoelectric controlled interfaces, commonly assume the existence of a general myocontrol skill. This is the skill to control myosignals in such a way that they are employable in multiple tasks. If this skill exists, training any myocontrolled task using a certain set of muscles would improve the use of myocontrolled AT when the AT is controlled using these muscles. We examined whether a general myocontrol skill exists in myocontrolled tasks with and without a prosthesis. Unimpaired, right-handed adults used the sEMG of wrist flexors and extensors to perform several tasks in two experiments. In Experiment 1, twelve participants trained a myoelectric prosthesis-simulator task and a myocontrolled serious game for five consecutive days. Performance was compared between tasks and over the course of the training period. In Experiment 2, thirty-one participants performed five myocontrolled tasks consisting of two serious games, two prosthesis-simulator tasks and one digital signal matching task. All tasks were based on tasks currently used in clinical practice or research settings. Kendall rank correlation coefficients were computed to analyze correlations between the performance on different tasks. In Experiment 1 performance on the tasks showed no correlation for multiple outcome measures. Rankings within tasks did not change over the training period. In Experiment 2 performance did not correlate between any of the tasks. Since performance between different tasks did not correlate, results suggest that a general myocontrol skill does not exist and that each myocontrolled task requires a specific skill. Generalization of those findings to amputees using AT should be done with caution since in both experiments unimpaired participants were included. Moreover, training duration in Experiment 2 was short. Our findings indicate that training and assessment methods for myocontrolled AT use should focus on tasks frequently performed in daily life by the individual using the AT instead of merely focusing on training myosignals.
肌控辅助技术（AT）的研究，如肌电假肢，以及使用肌电控制接口的康复实践，通常假设存在一种通用的肌控技能。这是一种控制肌电信号的技能，以便它们可以用于多种任务。如果这种技能存在，那么使用特定肌肉群训练任何肌控任务，都将提高使用该肌群控制肌控 AT 时的肌控 AT 应用能力。我们研究了在有无假肢的情况下，肌控任务是否存在通用的肌控技能。未受损的右利手成年人使用腕屈肌和伸肌的 sEMG 在两个实验中执行了几个任务。在实验 1 中，12 名参与者连续五天训练肌电假肢模拟器任务和肌控严肃游戏。在任务之间和训练期间比较了性能。在实验 2 中，31 名参与者执行了五个肌控任务，包括两个严肃游戏、两个假肢模拟器任务和一个数字信号匹配任务。所有任务都是基于目前在临床实践或研究环境中使用的任务。计算 Kendall 等级相关系数来分析不同任务的性能之间的相关性。在实验 1 中，多项结果指标的任务性能没有相关性。任务内的排名在训练期间没有变化。在实验 2 中，任何任务之间的性能都没有相关性。由于不同任务之间的性能没有相关性，结果表明不存在通用的肌控技能，每个肌控任务都需要特定的技能。在使用 AT 的截肢者中推广这些发现应谨慎进行，因为在两个实验中都包括了未受损的参与者。此外，实验 2 的训练持续时间较短。我们的研究结果表明，肌控 AT 使用的训练和评估方法应侧重于个人在日常生活中经常执行的任务，而不仅仅是专注于训练肌电信号。
