A reliability study on the cumulative averaging method for estimating effective stimulus time in vibration studies

• Published in: Journal of electromyography and kinesiology Vol. 70; p. 102768
• Main Authors: Kilic, Aysegül, Soytürk, Gülsah, Karaoglu, Ayse, Topkara Arslan, Betilay, Karacan, Ilhan, Türker, Kemal S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-06-2023
• Subjects: Cumulative average method; Humans; Intra-observer error; Muscle Contraction - physiology; Muscle, Skeletal - physiology; Precision error; Reflex - physiology; Reflex latency; Reproducibility of Results; Vibration; Whole-body vibration; Precision error; Whole-body vibration; Intra-observer error; Cumulative average method; Reflex latency
• ISSN: 1050-6411; 1873-5711
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jelekin.2023.102768

•Whole-body vibration (WBV) has beneficial neuromuscular effects.•The spinal reflexes underlying these neuromuscular effects are still in question.•The main challenge is that WBV is high-frequency continuous sinusoidal stimulation.•We developed a method to find effective stimulus time (EST) for WBV stimulation.•The cumulative average method is highly reliable to find the EST point.
Finding the reflex circuitry responsible for high-frequency vibration-induced muscle contraction takes work. The main challenge is to determine the effective stimulus time (EST) point at which continuous (sinusoidal) stimulation (i.e., vibration) triggers the reflex response. A novel “cumulated averaging method” has been previously proposed for estimating the EST point. In the current study, we aimed to test the reliability of the cumulated average method. We used five different whole-body vibration (WBV) frequencies in two experiments. The consistency between the EST points estimated from the first and second experiments was analysed with the intraclass correlation (ICC) and technical error of measurement (TEM). The ICC coefficient with 95% CI for the EST point estimation was 0.988 (0.950–0.997). The relative TEM was 1.3%. We concluded that the cumulated average method is highly reliable in estimating the effective stimulus time point for high-frequency continuous sinusoidal signals.