To better analyze the problem of abnormal neuromuscular coupling related to motor dysfunction for stroke patients, the functional coupling of the multichannel electromyography (EMG) were studied and the difference between stroke patients and healthy subjects were further analyzed to explore the pathological mechanism of motor dysfunction after stroke. Firstly, the cross-frequency coherence (CFC) analysis and non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) were combined to construct a CFC-NMF model to study the linear coupling relationship in bands and the nonlinear coupling characteristics in different frequency ratios during elbow flexion and extension movement. Furthermore, the significant coherent area and sum of cross-frequency coherence were respectively calculated to quantitatively describe the intermuscular linear and nonlinear coupling characteristics. The results showed that the linear coupling relationship between multichannel muscles was different in frequency bands and the overall coupling was stronger in low frequency band. The linear coupling strength of the stroke patients was lower than that of the healthy subjects in different frequency bands especially in beta and gamma bands. For the nonlinear coupling, the intermuscular coupling strength of stroke patients in different frequency ratios was significantly lower than that of the healthy subjects, and the coupling strength in the frequency ratio 1∶2 was higher than that in the frequency ratio 1∶3. This method can provide a theoretical basis for exploring the intermuscular coupling mechanism of patients with motor dysfunction.
Objective To investigate the effects of community self-help group activities on psychological status, quality of life (QOL), social support, and community-based activities of daily living in home-based stroke patients. Methods Stroke patients discharged from Mianzhu People’s Hospital between January 2016 and December 2018 were enrolled. Participants were randomly allocated using a random number table into two groups: the experimental group (community self-help rehabilitation) and control group. Assessments were conducted at baseline and 6 months post-intervention using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Stroke-Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QOL), Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), and a community-based activities of daily living scale. Results A total of 130 patients were included. Among them, there were 63 cases in the experimental group and 67 cases in the control group. No significant baseline differences were observed between groups in demographic characteristics or outcome measures including age, gender, depression (SDS), anxiety (SAS), SSRS, SS-QOL, and community-based activities of daily living scores (P>0.05). At 6-month follow-up, between-group comparisons revealed statistically significant differences favoring the experimental group in depression, anxiety, and SS-QOL scores (P<0.05), while no significant intergroup differences were observed in SS-QOL, and community-basedactivities of daily living scores (P>0.05). The intra group comparison results showed that the depression and anxiety scores in the experimental group were lower after intervention than before intervention (P<0.05). The anxiety score of the control group after intervention was higher than before intervention (P<0.05), and there was no statistically significant difference in the depression score before and after intervention (P>0.05). The SSRS and community-based activities of daily living scores of both groups after intervention were higher than before intervention. The SS-QOL of the experimental group after intervention was higher than before intervention (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in SS-QOL between the control group before and after intervention (P>0.05). Conclusion Community self-help group activities improve psychological status, QOL, and community-based activities of daily living capabilities in home-based stroke patients, but demonstrate no superiority over home-based rehabilitation alone in enhancing community-based daily living capabilities.