Gait is complex, described by diverse characteristics underpinned by widespread central nervous system networks including motor and cognitive functions. Despite this, neural substrates of discrete gait characteristics are poorly understood, limiting understanding of gait impairment in ageing and disease. This structured review aims to map gait characteristics, defined from a pre-specified model reflecting independent gait domains, to brain imaging parameters in older adults. Fifty-two studies of 38,029 yielded were reviewed. Studies showed inconsistent approaches when mapping gait assessment to neural substrates, limiting conclusions. Gait impairments typically associated with brain deterioration, specifically grey matter atrophy and white matter integrity loss. Gait velocity, a global measure of gait control, was most frequently associated with these imaging markers within frontal and basal ganglia regions, and its decline predicted from white matter volume and integrity measurements. Fewer studies assessed additional gait measures or functional imaging parameters. Future studies mapping regional neuroanatomical and functional correlates of gait are needed, including those which take a multi-process network perspective to better understand mobility in health and disease.

步态是复杂的，其特征是由广泛的中枢神经系统网络（包括运动和认知功能）所支持的各种特征来描述。尽管如此，人们对离散步态特征的神经基质了解甚少，这限制了对衰老和疾病中步态损害的理解。这项结构性审查旨在将步态特征（从反映独立步态域的预先指定模型定义）映射到老年人的脑成像参数。对52项研究的38,029篇文献进行了综述。研究表明，将步态评估映射到神经基质时，方法不一致，从而限制了结论。步态障碍通常与大脑退化有关，特别是灰质萎缩和白质完整性丧失。步态速度，是步态控制的整体指标，与额叶和基底神经节区域中的这些成像标记最常相关，其下降是根据白质量和完整性测量预测的。较少的研究评估了其他步态测量或功能成像参数。需要对未来的区域性步态神经解剖学和功能相关性进行定位的未来研究，包括那些从多进程网络的角度来更好地了解健康和疾病活动性的研究。