Due to the disparate content offered by the 2 most popular review books, biofeedback parameters and settings usually generate confusion among test takers.
It helps to understand that the EMG Biofeedback device does not produce muscle contraction but assists the patient with recruitment of motor units (as in the case with weak muscles) or muscle relaxation (for tight muscles) and displays the muscle activity being monitored via auditory (beeps) or visual (flashing lights) feedback.
Generally, for tight/strong muscles, the aim is to relax the muscles. Therefore, the initial sensitivity setting is LOW and is gradually increased as the patient learns to decrease muscle recruitment – in other words, the patient works harder NOT to recruit muscles and learns how to decrease muscle firing (i.e. relax) during voluntary contractions. For weak group of muscles, the aim is to strengthen the muscles. The electrodes are widely spaced to record electrical activity from the various muscles of the weak group (for a single weak muscle, the electrodes are closely placed to prevent recording electrical input from other surrounding muscles AKA ‘cross-talk’). Weak muscles tend to produce weaker contractions leading to weak electrical activity. Weak electrical activity can be captured and recorded by keeping the biofeedback sensitivity high. The sensitivity setting may then be slowly decreased in later sessions as the muscles start getting stronger and the patient is better able to consciously recruit more muscle fibers in active contractions.
Will has a highly educative blog post which I recommend on EMG Biofeedback on the PTFE site that clarifies a lot of confusion on Biofeedback parameters and settings.
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