Frontiers editorial project

Frontiers in Neurology/Neurorehabilitation, Editorial Project 11157 on:

“Surface Electromyography: Barriers limiting widespread use of sEMG in clinical assessment and neurorehabilitation.”

https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/11157

All articles and the e-book are open access and free.

Editorial Team:

Roberto Merletti, Ph.D., Former Director, LISiN, Politecnico di Torino, Italy E-Mail: [email protected], or [email protected]

Catherine Disselhorst-Klug, Ph.D., Head of Dept. of Rehabilitation and Prevention Engineering / RPE, Institute of Applied Medical Engineering - RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany. E-Mail: [email protected]

William Z. Rymer, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Single Motor Unit Laboratory, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Professor, Departments of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Physiology, and Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA. E-Mail: [email protected]

Isabella Campanini, PT, Ph.D. Head of the Motion Analysis Laboratory of the Rehabilitation Department of the Azienda USL-IRCCS of Reggio Emilia, Italy E-Mail: [email protected]

About this project:

Physiotherapy (PT), physical and rehabilitation medicine, and neurology/neurorehabilitation are among the branches of clinical practice with the strongest and fastest growing interactions with neurophysiology, physics and neurorehabilitation engineering. This is creating growth pains and a large gap between the available knowledge and measurement techniques and their use in the current clinical practice. In times of limited resources, the future perspective and developments of these specialties will increasingly depend on the evidence supporting the effectiveness of preventive and therapeutic interventions in the light of Evidence Based Rehabilitation (EBR). Surface EMG (sEMG) is one of the tools providing such evidence.

The sEMG field is addressing these problems, with over 700 publications/year, 90 review papers and about 30 textbooks, contrasting with the limited clinical use and almost no teaching in the PT schools of most countries. The purpose of this project is to review and discuss the reasons for this situation that is in contrast with the rapid spreading of ECG and EEG a few decades ago.

Frontiers Project 11157 presents 18 contributions and an editorial from seven countries and 80 authors (33 engineers, 16 MDs, 18 physiotherapists and occupational therapists, 13 movement scientists and over 40 reviewers) who are highly respected experts in the many fields of sEMG. The general problem is addressed, results of interviews are presented as well as the situation in specific countries, and teaching/communication experiences. Specific clinical applications concerning neurorehabilitation, gait analysis, sport, kinesiology, exoskeletons, occupational medicine and ergonomics, are discussed. The Table of contents includes the links to the individual free articles.

Table of contents of the Frontiers in Neurology/Neurorehabilitation e-book on “Surface Electromyography: Barriers limiting widespread use of sEMG in clinical assessment and neurorehabilitation.”