The goal of this thesis is to investigate if it is possible to use measurements of physiological parameters to accelerate learning of target shooting for novice marksmen in Saab’s Ground combat indoor trainer (GC-IDT). This was done through a literature study that identified brain activity, eye movements, heart activity, muscle activity and breathing as related to shooting technique. The sensors types Electroencephalography (EEG), Electroocculography (EOG), Electrocardiogram (ECG), Electromyography (EMG) and impedance pneumography (IP) were found to be suitable for measuring the respective parameters in the GC-IDT. The literature study also showed that previous studies had found differences in the physiological parameters in the seconds leading up to the shot when comparing experts and novices. The studies further showed that it was possible to accelerate learning by giving feedback to the novices about their physiological parameters allowing them to mimic the behavior of the experts. An experiment was performed in the GC-IDT by measuring EOG, ECG, EMG and IP on expert and novice marksmen to investigate if similar results as seen in previous studies were to be found. The experiment showed correlation between eye movements and shooting score, which was in line with what previous studies had shown. The respiration measurement did not show any correlation to the shooting scores in this experiment, it was however possible to see a slight difference between expert and novices. The other measurements did not show any correlation to the shooting score in this experiment. In the future, further experiments needs to be made as not all parameters could be explored in depth in this experiment. Possible improvements to such experiments are i.e. increasing the number of participants and/or the number of shots as well as marking shots automatically in the data and increasing the time between shots.

Author: Bc. et Bc. Barbora Pyšková Title: Elektromyographic analysis of differences in selected excercises on pommel horse and riding horse Objectives: The aim of the thesis was to measure the activity of selected muscles, expressed as the percentage value of the maximal voluntary contraction (MVC), during excercises performed by both males and females probands. The effect of treatment (on pommel horse vs riding horse) and proband sex on muscle activity was tested. Methods: Maximal voluntary contraction of each muscle (eight in total) was electromyographically measured in each proband, using the test according to Janda. These values were used as a standard to which the values obtained by excercising on pommel horse and riding horse were related. The values were averages of three repeated measurements. The effect of studied factors was tested by analysis of variance. Results: The tested hypotheses were confirmed. The muscle activity during excercises was statistically significantly affected by the factors studied, therefore the variation in measured values is not random. Muscle activity tended to be higher on riding horse than on pommel horse, and in females compared to males. Key words: horse riding, pommel horse, EMG, electromyography, hipotherapy, correct horse sit

Author: Hirofumi Sageshima Title: Electromyographic analysis of the cervical flexion during different body positions Aim and Purpose: The aim of this study is to find out the muscle activity and the muscle coordination during cervical flexion in 3 different positions - standing, sitting and supine - with electromyographic analysis in young healthy adults. Methods: This study compared superficial cervical flexor muscles activity during conventional cervical flexion to 20 volunteered healthy subjects with surface electromyography (EMG). The activity of 5 paired muscles - sternocleidomastoid, scalenus, suprahyoid, infrahyoid and superior part of trapezius - were measured when they performed 15-time cyclic cervical flexion-extension from neutral to maximum cervical flexion on 3 different positions - sitting, standing and supine - in random order. Results: Significantly higher EMG amplitude was detected from all measured muscles on supine position than sitting and standing (p < 0.05). It was also confirmed that muscle activation pattern was different according to positions; its amplitude on supine reach the peak in the earlier phase of movement, while it was delayed on 2 other positions (p < 0.05). In terms of onset, all cervical flexors activated together in the very beginning. However, on sitting and...

Tittle: Description quadrupedal locomotion diagonal pattern in specific sport activity (rope climbing, walking, pull-up) Aim of work: The aim is to find a description kvadrupedal locomotion diagonal pattern with rope climbing and its motion pattern compared with the motion pattern of walking and pull-up. Methods: This work is descriptively-association study with quantitative and qualitative analysis. The dates were measured by surface electromyography and 2-D video-analysis. Results: Alternating activation of upper extremities (rope climbing without the lower extremities), we proved that the movement supporting lower extremities is quadruped locomotion diagonal pattern. Symmetric work of upper extremities (pull-up) is not in response at lower extremities quadruped locomotion diagonal pattern. Key words: Electromyography (EMG), quadruped, diagonal pattern, rope climbing, pull-up, walking

One of the causes of work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) is the manual handling of heavy objects. To reduce the risk of such injuries, workers are instructed to follow general guidelines on how to lift and carry objects depending on their mass. Current ergonomic assessments using wearable sensors can differentiate correct from incorrect body postures but are limited. Being able to estimate the mass of an object during ergonomic assessment would be a great improvement. This work investigates a combination of Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) and Electromyography (EMG) sensors for offline estimation of an object’s mass for different movements. 10 participants performed 26 lifting and carrying trials with loads from 0 to 19 kg, while wearing a 17IMU motion capture system and EMG sensors on both biceps brachii and both erector spinae. Two methods were considered to estimate the carried mass: (1) supervised machine learning and (2) musculoskeletal modeling. First, the data was used to select features, train, and compare regression models. The lowest Mean Squared Error (MSE) for 10-fold cross-validation for lifting and carrying combined was 5.8113 for a Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) model with an exponential kernel function. Then, a MSE of 4.42 and a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 1.63 kg were obtained also with a GPR for Leave-One-Subject-Out Cross-Validation (LOSOCV) only for lifting and frontal carrying trials. For the same trials, the upper-extremity musculoskeletal model, scaled to each participant, estimated the mass with a MSE of 1.78 and a MAE of 0.95 kg. The study was restricted to lifting and frontal carrying, but the combination of the two technologies showed great potential for object mass estimation.

Localized muscle fatigue (LMF) has been proposed as a surrogate measure to injury, since the onset of fatigue is rapid rather than months or years required to the onset of work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The objectives of this study were to estimate LMF and quantify muscle activity of select forearm muscles during simulations of high pressure cleaning lance tasks common in the chemical production industry. Twenty participants, twelve males and eight females, with no musculoskeletal injuries and meeting criteria for upper extremity fitness, performed the simulated task. Independent variables studied include work height (shoulder, waist, and knuckle), lance orientation (parallel to the operator and parallel to the ground), and duty cycle (33, 50, and 67%) based on task analyses of actual work tasks. Dependent variables included mean RMS and rates of change in mean RMS, mean and median power frequency, MVE, and subjective ratings of fatigue. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to test the main effects of the independent variables and appropriate interactions. In general it was found that working at waist height, at higher duty cycles, and with the lance oriented parallel to the operator resulted in higher fatigue measures. Subjective ratings of fatigue were not well correlated with objective measures, similar to findings in previous studies. The simulated task was found to be extremely fatiguing and modifications to task design or job rotation schedules are required to reduce risk associated with injury development. / Master of Science

Afin d’être représentatif d’un niveau d’effort musculaire, le signal électromyographique (EMG) est exprimé par rapport à une valeur d’activation maximale. Comme l’épaule est une structure articulaire et musculaire complexe, aucune contraction volontaire isométrique (CVMi) proposée dans la littérature ne permet d’activer maximalement un même muscle de l’épaule pour un groupe d’individus. L’objectif de ce mémoire est de développer une approche statistique permettant de déterminer les CVMi optimales afin de maximiser les niveaux d’activation d’un ensemble de muscles de l’épaule. L’amplitude du signal EMG de 12 muscles de l’épaule a été enregistrée chez 16 sujets alors qu’ils effectuaient 15 CVMi. Une première approche systématique a permis de déterminer les 4 CVMi parmi les 15 qui ensemble maximisent les niveaux d’activation pour les 12 muscles simultanément. Ces 4 contractions ont donné des niveaux d’activation supérieurs aux recommandations antérieures pour 4 muscles de l’épaule. Une seconde approche a permis de déterminer le nombre minimal de CVMi qui sont nécessaires afin de produire un niveau d’activation qui n’est pas significativement différent des valeurs d’activation maximales pour les 16 sujets. Pour 12 muscles de l’épaule, un total de 9 CVMi sont requises afin de produire des valeurs d’activation qui sont représentatives de l’effort maximal de tous les sujets. Ce mémoire a proposé deux approches originales, dont la première a maximisé les niveaux d’activation qui peuvent être produits à partir d’un nombre fixe de CVMi tandis que la deuxième a permis d’identifier le nombre minimal de CVMi nécessaire afin de produire des niveaux d’activation qui ne sont pas significativement différentes des valeurs d’activation maximales. Ces deux approches ont permis d’émettre des recommandations concernant les CVMi nécessaires à la normalisation de l’EMG afin de réduire les risques de sous-estimer l’effort maximal d’un ensemble d’individus. / As a means to provide information on the intensity of the muscle activity, the electromyographic (EMG) signal must be expressed as a percentage of a maximum activation value. Because of the anatomical complexity of the shoulder, no single maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) has been found to maximally activate the same muscle for a group of subjects. The objective of this study is to develop a statistical approach to determine the optimal MVICs that can maximise the activation levels for several shoulder muscles. The amplitude of the EMG signal of 12 shoulder muscles was recorded as 16 subjects performed 15 MVICs in standardised positions. A first systematic approach was used to determine the optimal 4 MVICs amongst 15 that could maximise the activation levels of 12 shoulder muscles simultaneously. The activation levels produced by these 4 MVICs were significantly higher than those produced by previous recommendations. A second approach was adopted to identify the minimum number of MVICs that were required to produce muscle activation levels that did not significantly differ from the maximum activation values. For 12 shoulder muscles, 9 MVICs were necessary to produce muscle activation levels that were representative of the maximum effort of all 16 subjects. This study proposed two novel approaches, the first of which maximised the EMG activation levels that can be produced by a fixed number of MVICs while the second approach identified the minimum number of MVICs required to produce EMG activation levels that were not significantly different from the maximum values of activation. These two approaches provided guidelines with regards to the MVICs that are necessary to normalize the EMG signals of 12 shoulder muscles while reducing the risks of underestimating the maximum capacity of each individual.

Title: Influence of horse breed and type of terrain on activation of the abdominal muscles in hippotherapy. Purposes: The aim of the study is to find out if horse breed and type of terrain approaches muscle activation in the position of unassisted sitting Methods: The study is of intraindividual character and incudes theoretical and practical part. The activation of abdominal muscles was measured by using surface electromyography and kinematic analysis. Results: There was differance between muscle activation with a different type of terrain. Horse breed does not influence a muscle activation but the individual biomechanic of each horse. Key words: hippotherapy, hipporehabilitation, horse breed, activation of abdominal muscles, unassisted seat, therapeutic horseback riding, electromyography

Title: Influence of horse breed and type of terrain on activation of the abdominal muscles in hippotherapy. Purposes: The aim of the study is to find out if horse breed and type of terrain approaches muscle activation in the position of unassisted sitting Methods: The study is of intraindividual character and incudes theoretical and practical part. The activation of abdominal muscles was measured by using surface electromyography and kinematic analysis. Results: There was differance between muscle activation with a different type of terrain. Horse breed does not influence a muscle activation but the individual biomechanic of each horse. Key words: hippotherapy, hipporehabilitation, horse breed, activation of abdominal muscles, unassisted seat, therapeutic horseback riding, electromyography

Dans un environnement imprévisible, l'homme n'est pas toujours capable d'adapter son comportement à une situation donnée et commet alors des erreurs. Dans environ 95% des cas, ces erreurs sont commises consciemment. Cependant, le traitement de l'erreur par le cerveau ne s'opère pas de façon binaire. En effet, l'enregistrement de l'activité électromyographique (EMG) des muscles effecteurs des réponses, révèle, dans environ 15% des essais, une amorce de réponse incorrecte, une ébauche d'erreur. Dans ces essais, les sujets ont été capables de détecter, d'inhiber et de corriger leurs ébauches d'erreurs avant de produire la réponse correcte. Ces processus nécessitent-ils l'intervention de la conscience ? Quels en sont les marqueurs ?Nous montrons dans une première étude que les sujets sont capables d'une détection consciente de leurs ébauches d'erreurs dans un faible nombre de cas seulement (environ 30%). Nous mettons en évidence deux prédicteurs d'une telle détection : la taille de la bouffée EMG associée à l'ébauche d'erreur ainsi que le temps mis par les sujets, depuis le début de cette bouffée, pour la corriger et fournir la réponse correcte. Dans une deuxième étude, nous montrons qu'un indice électroencéphalographique (EEG), la Négativité d'erreur (Ne), pourrait servir de stimulus interne pour le cerveau, à la détection consciente des ébauches d'erreurs et des erreurs. Leur accès conscient interviendrait plus tardivement dans les ébauches d'erreurs que dans les erreurs, mais serait reflété dans les deux cas par des activités EEG similaires, la Positivité d'erreur (Pe). Ainsi, la correction des ébauches d'erreurs interfère avec leur accès conscient en le ralentissant. / In an unpredictable environment, man is not always able to adapt its behavior to a given situation and then makes mistakes. In about 95% of cases, these mistakes are made consciously. However, error processing in the brain does not occur in binary mode . Indeed, the recording of the electromyographic (EMG) activity of muscles involved in responses, reveals that, in about 15 % of the trials, there is a subthreshold incorrect EMG activity, called partial error, that precede the correct one. In these trials, the subjects were able to detect, inhibit their partial errors and correct them to produce the correct response.Does these processes require intervention of consciousness? What are the related markers ?We show in a first study that subjects are capable of conscious detection of their partial errors in a small number of cases (about 30 %).We highlight two predictors of such detection : the size of the EMG burst associated with the partial error and the time taken by the subjects, since EMG onset , to correct and to provide the correct response.In a second study , we show that an electroencephalographic (EEG) index, the error negativity (Ne) , could serve as an internal stimulus to the brain, for conscious detection of errors and partial errors. Their conscious access would occur later in partial errors than errors but would be reflected in both cases by similar a similar EEG activity, the error positivity (Pe). Thus, correction of partial errors interfere with their conscious access by slowing it.