**5. Health science research with EMG**

In research using EMG, there are two groups of studies: clinical and kinesiologic. Kinesiologic EMG is to record the response during motion of the body.

Clinical EMG


Likely target diseases are amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, polymyositis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and Bell's palsy.

Cases of kinesiologic EMG are as in the following:


resistance exercise (TPRE). Post-TKA subjects received physical therapy with WBV or with TPRE for 4 weeks. There was a significant increase in knee extensor strength and improvements

With an addition of WBV to squat training, elderly people with knee osteoarthritis (OA) were evaluated on functional performance and self-report of disease. A total of 23 elderly subjects participated. There was no statistically significant difference in functional performance and

We therapists realize after all that, at the present time, WBV effectiveness against SCI, PD, MS, and knee OA has not been established. There are reasons for that: disease mechanisms have not been clarified, and optimum conditions such as stimulation frequency are not definitely set yet. And in intervention studies, one cannot completely eliminate the influence of other factors. It is unfortunate that not enough high-level evidence-based research has been done or

Though rather limited in scope, we therapists can help people with disabilities, or even people without disabilities, by suppressing the muscle tone of a given muscle through the spinal cord

In research using EMG, there are two groups of studies: clinical and kinesiologic. Kinesiologic

**1.** EMG as a diagnostic aid in cases in which causes of muscle weakness and muscle atrophy

Likely target diseases are amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, polymyositis, carpal tunnel syndrome,

**2.** EMG as a means to confirm the lesion site and properties of peripheral nerve injury

self-report of disease status between groups of squat training with or without WBV.

in mobility both with WBV and with TPRE.

208 Electrodiagnosis in New Frontiers of Clinical Research

**5. Health science research with EMG**

are neurogenic or myogenic

EMG is to record the response during motion of the body.

**3.** EMG as a means to confirm abnormal muscle activity

**4.** EMG in cases that are not classifiable as 1, 2, or 3 above

Cases of kinesiologic EMG are as in the following:

**3.** EMG to measure amount of muscle activity

**1.** EMG to check presence or absence of muscle activity

**2.** EMG to measure timing and duration of muscle activity

**4.6. Summary**

published.

Clinical EMG

and Bell's palsy.

loop.


In recent years, the study of human-machine interfaces became fairly popular. For example, equipment is used to amplify muscle activities of a person with disabilities, which will then be relayed to a robot so it can put them into effect for the disabled person. Or EMG is made use of as a vital part of technique to convey information from a robot to a human subject through the human senses. We shall introduce some of these studies.

In the field of rehabilitation, the type of equipment has been developed that controls move‐ ments of a joint by the muscle discharge in people with disabilities. The equipment sends a command from electrodes attached to the forearm of the robot to its artificially created fingers to control. The number of sensors attached on the disabled person increased gradually, so it became possible to control the intensity of such delicate movements as tapping or lifting. Numerous researches have also been done on motion control by an exoskeleton. The target joints now include forearm, elbow joint, shoulder joint, upper limb, cervix, hip joint, knee joint and lower limb, as well as a wide variety of fingers and hands. In upper limb research, starting from motions of three degrees of freedom (3-DOF), it has now reached the level of 7-DOF motions. Research on reaction time has also shown improvement; in the line of research on hand reactions, delays of only 100 ms have been attained. Research has also been done on robot-assisted therapy on upper limb recovery after stroke, but not much that is revolutionary has come out of it so far. Perhaps we can expect to see this line of research grow in the future.

We consider it possible that robot-assisted therapy may eventually help an individual patient become free from environmental and personal factors. Introduction of the so-called ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) model may be something that is revolutionary.
