VIBRATION
Vibration as Treatment
The first documented attempts to use mechanical vibration on humans can be traced back to Jean-Martin Charcot. In the 1880s, French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot observed that patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease experienced reduced tremors and a more restful sleep after riding on a train or horse. Hence, he fashioned a fauteuil trépidant, or vibratory chair, that simulated the rhythmic shaking of a carriage.
His chair caused a stir at the time, but the effects were limited, and the chair was later abandoned. His student and junior colleague Georges Gilles de la Tourette extended these observations and fashioned a helmet that vibrated the head, on the premise that the brain responded directly to the pulsations, reporting its efficacy for schizophrenia and migraine patients.
Over the years, other vibration studies were taken up and then abandoned. When Pavlov demonstrated the plasticity of the Central Nervous System (CNS), he gave research into vibration treatments new relevance as many scientists perceived vibration as to be a suitable method for interaction between the peripheral system and the CNS.
Following World War II, other studies contributed to our understanding of how vibration could be used, including these significant events:
• 1960 - Kandel and Rosenkranz began to associate the vibration mechanics of high frequencies with the Long Term Conditioning (LTC) and Long Term Potentiation (LTP) phenomena.
• 1962 – Melzack and Wall demonstrated that vibration impacted the control of pain at 120 Hz.
• 1975 - Lucier published a study on the maximum activation of Alpha motor neurons happening at a frequency of 300 Hz.
• 1976 – Various researchers noted that the tonic vibration reflex (RTV) operates predominantly, if not exclusively, through Alpha motor neurons and it does not use the same efferent cortical patterns as voluntary movement.
• 1980 - Wolpaw Jr. produced plastic enhancements of the proprioceptive network using mechanical stimuli according to the phenomenon of the LTP.
• 1994 - Carmelo Bosco developed the first whole body vibration (WBV) treatment.
• 2000 - J. Rothwell and K. Rosenkranz the showed that muscle exposed to vibration activates specific neuronal circuits by changing the brain excitability distribution circuits, a modulation that persists after stimulus ends.
• 2003 - Rosenkranz showed that muscle reprogramming, through the modulation of brain circuits, can only be achieved if the mechanical vibration is focused.
• 2005 - Wolpaw JR demonstrated the LTP and LTC phenomena.
• 2005 - Kandel show that vibration creates a new memory in selected neural networks.
• 2006 - L. Vecchiet and R. Saggini published the first clinical evidence of the effects and duration of the mechano-acoustic square wave.
• 2010 - Saggini et al. showed the effects of the focal mechano-acoustic vibration on the endocrine system and muscle tissue.
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Prof. Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893)
Focal Mechano-Acoustic Square Wave Vibration Technology
In the late 1990s, clinical evidence had confirmed the potential of mechano-acoustic vibration to rehabilitate and restore muscle tone, but there were still drawbacks. Not only did the effectiveness of treatment eventually dissipate, the devices were still cumbersome, physically unsuited to everyday professional use. A more adaptable solution was needed, so the team of researchers assembled by Vissman undertook to build a device specifically designed to administer a focused vibrational treatment to patients with more lasting results.
After several years of careful research and experimentation, the team reached the conclusion that the limitations of the existing technologies would prevent achieving their objective. Forced to seek a new approach, in 2001, they started to evaluate the possibility of using air, that is, a vibration emitted by fast moving air cones. To establish more precise control, they came up with the idea of separating the energy source from the element creating the vibration with the objective of calibrating the vibration more precisely, at any frequency and without resistance. After these and other innovations and adaptations, the team eventually distilled their research into the first prototype of the portable treatment device, the Myomodulator.
And so it was, in 2004, that a new type of vibration technology was born, earning the Invention Patent in Italy and eventually in other countries. The acronym ViSS®, from Vibration Sound System, was an abbreviated reference to their creation: focal mechano-acoustic square wave vibration technology. But it was also a nod to the Latin word vis, or strength, the inevitable result of redefining what remained once pain was diminished or eliminated forever. This project was, is and forever will be the basis of Vissman technology. ViSS® has since been identified not only as a product, but as procedure and a technology, and the ViSS® trademark is now found on every device that employs this unique technology.
