Muscle Synergy extraction in human balance and motor control

Motor tasks are achieved by activating an appropriate set of muscles depending on the task constraints of a specific movement. The central nervous system (CNS) plays the main role in motor control since it activates each muscle choosing both the magnitude and the timing of the activation. The organization of the CNS in controlling and coordinating a large number of muscles during different motor tasks still represents an open issue in the field of motor control. In the last years, the muscle synergy theory was proposed for the assessment of the modular organization of the CNS during different motor tasks. According to this theory, the CNS control a small number of muscles rather than coordinating every single muscle that is involved in a specific motor task. This research line is focused on the assessment of the modular organization of the CNS during postural balance, locomotion or more complex motor tasks, both in physiological and pathological conditions, by means of muscle synergy extraction. This can have important applications in clinics, robotics and sport science.

Pubblicazioni attinenti:

Rimini D., Agostini V., Knaflitz M. Intra-subject consistency during locomotion: similarity in shared and subject-specific muscle synergies, Frontiers in human neuroscience, vol. 11, pp. 586, 2017. hdl:11583/2694051

Rimini D., Agostini V., Rosati S., Castagneri C., Balestra G., Knaflitz M. Influence of pre-processing in the extraction of muscle synergies during human locomotion, In 2017 39th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), pp. 2502-2505, 2017. hdl:11583/2676666

Agostini V., Rimini D., Ghislieri M., Knaflitz M., Frola U., Trucco M. Muscle synergies in patients with low back pain: A statistical gait analysis study pre-and post-rehabilitation, In 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications (MeMeA), pp. 1-6, 2018. hdl:11583/2720201

Ghislieri M., Agostini V., Knaflitz M. The Effect of Signal-to-Noise Ratio on Muscle Synergy Extraction, In 2018 IEEE Life Sciences Conference (LSC), pp. 227-230, 2018. hdl:11583/2721870

Taborri J., Agostini V., Artemiadis P. K., Ghislieri M., Jacobs D. A., Roh J., Rossi S. Feasibility of muscle synergy outcomes in clinics, robotics, and sports: a systematic review, Applied bionics and biomechanics, 2018. hdl:11583/2704823