Baseline EMG alters muscle synergy activations while preserving spatial structure in healthy and post-stroke subjects

Collectively, the results indicate that resting baseline contains structured, low-level activations that influence temporal expression rather than spatial composition of synergies. Modest baseline inclusion (e.g., 0.5T) can capture this information without distorting core structure. These findings highlight the limitations of current synergy analysis methods and their implications for interpreting pathological motor strategies.