Beneficial effects of whole-body vibration exercise for brain disorders in experimental studies with animal models: a systematic review Author: André Lbd Cardoso1, Danúbia C Sá-Caputo2, Nasser R Asad2, Marieke Jg van Heuvelen3, Eddy A van der Zee4, Anderson Ribeiro-Carvalho5, Mario Bernardo-Filho2 Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> Programa de Pós-graduação em Fisiopatologia Clínica e Experimental, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 20551-030, RJ, Brasil; Laboratório de Vibrações Mecânicas e Práticas Integrativas, Departamento de Biofísica e Biometria, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcântara Gomes, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 20551-030, RJ, Brasil. Electronic address: andreluisdionizio@hotmail.com. <sup>2</sup> Laboratório de Vibrações Mecânicas e Práticas Integrativas, Departamento de Biofísica e Biometria, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcântara Gomes, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 20551-030, RJ, Brasil. <sup>3</sup> Department of Human Movement Sciences, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. <sup>4</sup> Molecular Neurobiology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Sciences, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. <sup>5</sup> Departamento de Ciências, Faculdade de Formação de Professores, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Conference/Journal: Behav Brain Res Date published: 2022 May 30 Other: Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.113933. , Word Count: 254 Brain disorders have been a health challenge and is increasing over the years. Early diagnosis and interventions are considered essential strategies to treat patients at risk of brain disease. Physical exercise has shown to be beneficial for patients with brain diseases. A type of exercise intervention known as whole-body vibration (WBV) exercise gained increasing interest. During WBV, mechanical vibrations, produced by a vibrating platform are transmitted, to the body. The purpose of the current review was to summarize the effects of WBV exercise on brain function and behavior in experimental studies with animal models. Searches were performed in EMBASE, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science including publications from 1960 to July 2021, using the keywords "whole body vibration" AND (animal or mice or mouse or rat or rodent). From 1284 hits, 20 papers were selected. Rats were the main animal model used (75%) followed by mice (20%) and porcine model (5%), 16 studies used males species and 4 females. The risk of bias, accessed with the SYRCLE Risk of Bias tool, indicated that none of the studies fulfilled all methodological criteria, resulting in possible bias. Despite heterogeneity, the results suggest beneficial effects of WBV exercise on brain functioning, mainly related to motor performance, coordination, behavioral control, neuronal plasticity and synapse function. In conclusion, the findings observed in animal studies justifies continued clinical research regarding the effectiveness and potential of WBV for the treatment of various types of brain disorders such as trauma, developmental disorders, neurogenetic diseases and other neurological diseases. Keywords: animal studies; behaviour; brain; brain disorder; whole-body vibration. PMID: 35654174 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.113933