The complete curriculum

The anterior horn cell, peripheral nerve architecture, myelin, axonal conduction, the neuromuscular junction, and fibre-type physiology — the substrate every signal is built on.

How depolarization, repolarization, temporal and spatial summation, and motor-unit recruitment combine to generate MUAPs, CMAPs, and SNAPs.

Saltatory conduction, the nodes of Ranvier, and the determinants of conduction velocity — axon diameter, myelin integrity, and temperature.

Needle electrode physics, surface vs needle recording, differential amplification, filtering, signal-to-noise optimization, and artifact suppression.

CMAP amplitude, distal latency, conduction velocity, F-waves, temporal dispersion, and conduction block — measured and interpreted.

The microvolt-scale SNAP: amplitude, latency, velocity, antidromic vs orthodromic technique, and the axonal-vs-demyelinating signature.

Backfiring motor neurons and the monosynaptic reflex as windows onto the proximal nerve, root, and cord.

Synthesizing the axonal, demyelinating, mixed, and focal-entrapment patterns from the full set of conduction parameters.

Insertional activity, the endplate zone, fibrillation potentials, positive sharp waves, fasciculations, and the rarer discharges.

Amplitude, duration, phases, turns, and stability — the structural readout of the motor unit behind the needle, measured in real recordings.

Reduced recruitment, early recruitment, the interference pattern, and the confounder of effort dependence.

The central dichotomy of the needle exam, built from real healthy, myopathic, and neuropathic recordings.

Wallerian degeneration, the mechanisms and time course of axonal loss, and the biology of regeneration and collateral sprouting.

Myelin breakdown, the physics of conduction slowing, and the mechanism of conduction block and temporal dispersion.

Anterior horn cell degeneration, the denervation–reinnervation cycle, and the generation of fasciculations.

Presynaptic (Lambert–Eaton) and postsynaptic (myasthenia) failure, the physiology of fatigability, and the basis of decrement and facilitation.

Inflammatory, dystrophic, metabolic, and myotonic disease at the level of the fibre membrane and contractile apparatus.

Length-dependent and multifocal neuropathies, diabetic patterns, and the boundaries of electrodiagnosis in small-fibre disease.

Root localization, the paraspinal rule, and the sensory–motor dissociation that defines a radicular lesion.

Brachial and lumbosacral plexus anatomy, traumatic and non-traumatic patterns, and the electrical separation from root and nerve.

Carpal tunnel, ulnar neuropathy at the elbow, peroneal neuropathy at the fibular head, and tarsal tunnel — localized by focal slowing and block.

The El Escorial/Awaji framework: dissemination in space and time, fasciculation analysis, and chronic reinnervation in real recordings.

Repetitive nerve stimulation in practice — decrement, increment, and post-exercise facilitation — with a live junction model.

Inflammatory, myotonic, steroid, and metabolic myopathy at the needle, anchored to a real myopathic recording.

Jitter, blocking, and fibre density — the most sensitive assay of neuromuscular transmission.

MUAP decomposition, motor unit number estimation, and MUNIX as quantitative biomarkers of motor-unit loss.

Free-running and triggered EMG, SSEP/MEP monitoring, and the alarm criteria that protect the nervous system in the OR.

Developmental neuromuscular physiology, congenital myopathies and neuropathies, and the technical adaptations children require.

Time- and frequency-domain analysis, sampling, filtering, and artifact removal — applied to a real recording.

Pattern classification, automated neuropathy detection, and motor-unit decomposition — with their validation pitfalls.

From motor-unit recruitment to muscle force and functional output — the forward models that link EMG to behaviour.

Axonal vs demyelinating, myopathic vs neurogenic, and the localization logic that turns findings into a lesion.

Integrating history, the neurologic examination, and the disease timeline so the study answers the right question.

Benign fasciculations, over-read reinnervation, temperature and technical artifact, and the cognitive biases that produce error.

Sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios of EMG/NCS, diagnostic-accuracy study design, and guideline-based workup.

The ten-step expert workflow, integration with imaging, and the final competency — applied to blinded real recordings.