Adaptive HD-sEMG decomposition: towards robust real-time decoding of neural drive.

Objective . Neural interfacing via decomposition of high-density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG) should be robust to signal non-stationarities incurred by changes in joint pose and contraction intensity. Approach . We present an adaptive real-time motor unit decoding algorithm and test it on HD-sEMG collected from the extensor carpi radialis brevis during isometric contractions over a range of wrist angles and contraction intensities. The performance of the algorithm was verified using high-confidence benchmark decompositions derived from concurrently recorded intramuscular electromyography. Main results . In trials where contraction conditions between the initialization and testing data differed, the adaptive decoding algorithm maintained significantly higher decoding accuracies when compared to static decoding methods. Significance . Using "gold standard" verification techniques, we demonstrate the limitations of filter re-use decoding methods and show the necessity of parameter adaptation to achieve robust neural decoding.