Investigating the Central Nervous System's Response to Vibration Stimulation in the Human Body_ Dr Amit N. Pujari, Churchill Fellowship Report 2017

Vibration therapy — the use of controlled mechanical vibration as an exercise or rehabilitation intervention — is increasingly used in UK gyms, physiotherapy clinics and communal settings. Studies have shown that it can increase muscle strength and power in athletes, improve balance in older adults, and reduce some of the effects of conditions such as osteoporosis. However, despite its growing use, the neural mechanisms by which vibration produces these benefits have remained largely unknown. Without that knowledge, researchers and clinicians have no rational basis on which to choose vibration parameters or to identify which patients are most likely to benefit. My Churchill Fellowship was designed to begin to close that gap. I travelled to the Human Neurophysiology Laboratory at the University of Alberta in Canada, one of the world's leading laboratories for the study of the neural control of human movement, to acquire training in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive technique that allows scientists to measure how readily the brain talks to the muscles. By combining TMS with electrical reflex (H-reflex) techniques and our own purpose-built vibration device, I worked with my host laboratory to design and complete the first experimental study to ask, with the necessary precision, whether and how vibration applied to the upper limb acts on the brain, and on the spinal cord.