AUTHOR=La Scaleia Valentina , Sylos-Labini Francesca , Hoellinger Thomas , Wang Letian , Cheron Guy , Lacquaniti Francesco , Ivanenko Yuri P. TITLE=Control of Leg Movements Driven by EMG Activity of Shoulder Muscles JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience VOLUME=8 YEAR=2014 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00838 DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2014.00838 ISSN=1662-5161 ABSTRACT=

During human walking, there exists a functional neural coupling between arms and legs, and between cervical and lumbosacral pattern generators. Here, we present a novel approach for associating the electromyographic (EMG) activity from upper limb muscles with leg kinematics. Our methodology takes advantage of the high involvement of shoulder muscles in most locomotor-related movements and of the natural co-ordination between arms and legs. Nine healthy subjects were asked to walk at different constant and variable speeds (3–5 km/h), while EMG activity of shoulder (deltoid) muscles and the kinematics of walking were recorded. To ensure a high level of EMG activity in deltoid, the subjects performed slightly larger arm swinging than they usually do. The temporal structure of the burst-like EMG activity was used to predict the spatiotemporal kinematic pattern of the forthcoming step. A comparison of actual and predicted stride leg kinematics showed a high degree of correspondence (r > 0.9). This algorithm has been also implemented in pilot experiments for controlling avatar walking in a virtual reality setup and an exoskeleton during over-ground stepping. The proposed approach may have important implications for the design of human–machine interfaces and neuroprosthetic technologies such as those of assistive lower limb exoskeletons.