Background: The purpose of the review is to summarize the literature surrounding the use of muscle vibration as it relates to modifying human gait. Methods: After a brief introduction concerning historical uses and early research identifying the effect of vibration on muscle activation, we reviewed 32 articles that used muscle vibration during walking. The review is structured to address the literature within four broad categories: the effect of vibration to 'trigger' gait-like lower limb motions, the effect of vibration on gait control of healthy individuals and individuals with clinical conditions in which gait disorders are a prominent feature, and the effect of vibration training protocols on gait. Results: The acute effects of vibration during gait involving healthy participants is varied. Some authors reported differences in segmental kinematic and spatiotemporal measures while other authors reported no differences in these outcome measures. The literature involving participants with clinical conditions revealed that vibration consistently had a significant impact on gait, suggesting vibration may be an effective rehabilitation tool. All of the studies that used vibration therapy over time reported significant improvement in gait performance. Conclusions: This review highlights the difficulties in drawing definitive conclusions as to the impact of vibration on gait control, partly because of differences in walking protocols, site of vibration application, and outcome measures used across different investigative teams. It is suggested that the development of common investigative methodologies and outcome measures would accelerate the identification of techniques that may provide optimal rehabilitation protocols for individuals experiencing disordered gait control.

中文翻译：

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肌肉振动对步态控制的影响：综述。

背景：综述的目的是总结与使用肌肉振动有关的文献，因为它与改变人的步态有关。方法：在简要介绍了历史用途和确定振动对肌肉激活的影响的早期研究之后，我们回顾了32篇在步行过程中使用肌肉振动的文章。本综述旨在针对四大类文献：振动对“触发”步态样下肢运动的影响，振动对健康个体和具有明显步态障碍临床症状的个体的步态控制的影响功能，以及振动训练方案对步态的影响。结果：涉及健康参与者的步态振动的急性影响各不相同。一些作者报告了分段运动学和时空测量的差异，而其他作者报告了这些结局测量的无差异。涉及有临床症状的参与者的文献表明，振动始终对步态有重大影响，表明振动可能是一种有效的康复工具。随着时间的流逝，所有使用振动疗法的研究都表明步态性能有明显改善。结论：这篇综述强调了就振动对步态控制的影响得出明确结论的困难，部分原因是步行协议，振动应用部位和不同研究小组使用的结果测量方法的差异。