A Normative EMG Pipeline for Walking-Related Neuromuscular Coordination in Healthy Adults: A Foundation for Mild Cognitive Impairment Research
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Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
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Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with subtle motor abnormalities, yet current motor assessments often lack sensitivity and mechanistic specificity. This thesis developed and partly validated a Python-based electromyography (EMG) pipeline to quantify neuromuscular coordination during walking in healthy adults, providing a methodological foundation for future MCI studies. Seven cognitively unimpaired adults completed bilateral lower-limb EMG recordings during normal-speed treadmill, fast treadmill, and overground walking, and six returned for a repeat session to assess test–retest reliability. The pipeline integrated automated signal quality assessment, pre-processing, intermuscular coherence analysis, muscle activation sequence analysis, laterality analysis, and reliability testing. The knee muscle pair (L_VL↔L_BF) showed the strongest coherence and the most favourable reliability, especially during fast walking. Coherence varied across walking conditions, with overground walking associated with higher pipeline-specific beta-band coherence and fast walking revealing condition-dependent alpha-band changes. Activation sequence analysis demonstrated consistent spatiotemporal organisation across subjects, while rising slope metrics captured condition-related differences in activation dynamics. Reliability was acceptable for selected metrics but remained limited for others, particularly ankle and bilateral muscle pairs. These findings support the pipeline as a feasible and informative method for characterising walking-related neuromuscular coordination in healthy adults and provide preliminary normative reference data for future MCI research.