Minimum Electromyography Sensor Set Needed to Identify Age-Related Impairments in the Neuromuscular Control of Walking Using the Dynamic Motor Control Index

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a well-written article on the use of dynamic motor control (DMC) index to assess age-related neuromuscular decline. The study investigates the feasibility of using a reduced set of muscle sensors to calculate the DMC index. Overall, this study highlights the potential of the DMC index as a tool for early detection of age-related mobility decline

1. The writing is not yet satisfactory, and typos are found in several places, such as in the abstract, line 11. Please thoroughly review the manuscript.

2. The abstract should be more concise and clearly summarize the study's background, methods, results, and conclusions.

3. Are the participant numbers for each age group evenly distributed? Are there other factors that influence muscle, such as the participants' occupations, that need to be considered? Provide more details on participant selection and exclusion criteria.

4. Are there limitations to using the DMC index besides the complexity of data collection?

5. Clearly highlight gaps in the current literature that your study addresses.

6. Describe the non-negative matrix factorization process in more detail, especially for readers who may not be familiar with this technique.

6. Dynamic Motor Control Index: Elaborate on how the dynamic motor control index was specifically used to differentiate between age groups and the significance of this differentiation. How can the DMC index be incorporated into clinical practice for early intervention?

7. Sensor Sets Comparison: Clearly explain the comparative performance of the eleven-muscle, eight-muscle, and five-muscle sensor sets, and the implications of these findings for clinical practice.

8. Please improve your research methodology especialy protocols and procedures gathering data EMG

9. Redraw overview system that can make viewers get better expalanation about your experiment!

10. Please show us the EMG signals images, especially raw data and processed signals

11. Your research contribution and novelry are equivocal. Rewrite clearly and concisely

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1.Selection of muscles

2.Processes leading to walking problems

3.Neurophysiological mechanisms impaired.

4.Suggestion for clinicians

 

additional comments: 

1. Problems with muscles coordination depending on age. 2.Indexes, that are able to express relation of various muscle groups. 3.I am clinician and neurophysiologist but not specialist on the methods described. 4.Perhaps the main problém is the selection of muscles and the reduction from 11 to 8 a 5. 5.In conclusion there is generally missing the type of coordination problems depending on age. 6.References - References are appropriate 7.Comments - to indentify which muscle coordination problems are coming with age, various. Comments on the Quality of English Language

quite good

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf