Comparison of methods for estimating motor unit firing rate time series from firing times

The central nervous system regulates recruitment and firing of motor units to modulate muscle tension. Estimation of the firing rate time series is typically performed by decomposing the electromyogram (EMG) into its constituent firing times, then lowpass filtering a constituent train of impulses. Little research has examined the performance of different estimation methods, particularly in the inevitable presence of decomposition errors. The study of electrocardiogram (ECG) and electroneurogram (ENG) firing rate time series presents a similar problem, and has applied novel simulation models and firing rate estimators. Herein, we adapted an ENG/ECG simulation model to generate realistic EMG firing times derived from known rates, and assessed various firing rate time series estimation methods. ENG/ECG-inspired rate estimation worked exceptionally well when EMG decomposition errors were absent, but degraded unacceptably with decomposition error rates of ⩾1%. Typical EMG decomposition error rates—even after expert manual review—are 3–5%. At realistic decomposition error rates, more traditional EMG smoothing approaches performed best, when optimal smoothing window durations were selected. This optimal window was often longer than the 400 ms duration that is commonly used in the literature. The optimal duration decreased as the modulation frequency of firing rate increased, average firing rate increased and decomposition errors decreased. Examples of these rate estimation methods on physiologic data are also provided, demonstrating their influence on measures computed from the firing rate estimate.