Myolectric Response of the Upper Limbs to Temperature Variation

This article presents preliminary results of the effect of temperature variation in the environment on the human body at the myoelectric level, in order to be able to characterize it. The application of the results of this research aims to contribute in the future to the improvement of the prosthesis and therefore to the lifestyle of its users. The procedure used in the investigation required a temperaturecontrolled chamber, in which the right arm of the patient, who is exposed to these changes, is introduced. The information of the electromyographic signals (EMG) of the forearm was collected, as well as the temperatures of the body, Tb, chamber, Tc and environment Ta, for further analysis. The experiment was performed with ten patients who do not use any type of prosthesis. For the data adquisition, specialized electronic interfaces from several manufacturers and MATLAB & Simulink support software were used. The response of the EMG signal is shown in four different scenarios of the temperature variable: low steady state, increasing, high steady state and decreasing, effectively demonstrating changes of the EMG signal due to temperature variations.