Fully Implantable Multi-Channel Measurement System for Acquisition of Muscle Activity

This paper presents intramuscular electromyogram (EMG) signals obtained with a fully implantable measurement system that were recorded during goal directed arm movements. In a first implantation thin film electrodes were epimysially implanted on the deltoideus of a rhesus macaque and the encapsulation process was monitored by impedance measurements. Increase of impedance reached a constant level after four weeks indicating a complete encapsulation of electrodes. EMG recorded with these electrodes yielded a signal-to-noise ratio of about 80 dB at 200 Hz. The EMG recorded during goal-directed arm movements showed a high similarity to movements in the same direction and at the same time presented clear differences between different movement directions in time domain. Six classifiers and seven time and frequency domain features were investigated with the aim of discriminating the direction of arm movement from EMG signals. Reliable recognition of arm movements was achieved for a subset of the movements under investigation only. A second implantation of the whole measurement system for nine weeks demonstrated simple handling during surgery and good biotolerance in the animals.