Electromyography

Electromyography is used to record muscle fiber action potentials. In addition to needle myography, which is primarily used in clinical examinations, surface myography has proven itself for movement science issues. In most cases, two bipolar active electrodes (which are attached to the skin at a small distance above the muscle belly) and a reference electrode are used to record voltage changes (in the mV range) from the skin surface above the muscle with the aid of amplifier systems. The exact anatomical locations for attaching the active electrodes are described in the specialist literature.

The skin surface should be thoroughly cleaned and a contact gel applied between the skin and the electrode body to ensure that the measurement is as trouble-free as possible. Electromyography allows quantitative conclusions to be drawn about the duration, increase, level and characteristics of muscle activation.
Our electromyography consists of an 8-channel electro-optical isolation amplifier (Elisa 8.2) which is connected via an A/D converter card from National Instruments (NI Multi I/O PCI 6024 E) to an evaluation program geared towards movement science issues.