“Strain, strain rates, and their thresholds for predicting traumatic brain injury”

Hosted by the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science (MEMS)

Abstract: Critical tissues strain and strain rates are currently hypothesized as being the primary precursors to the onset of traumatic brain injury. There is great interest in developing methods to rapidly predict brain tissue strains and strain rates resulting from rotational head motions to estimate brain injury risk and to guide the design of protective equipment. In this talk, we will present new algorithms for recreating the head and body kinematics from inertial sensor measurements; and new idealized continuum mechanics-based head models for predicting brain tissue strains and strain rates from those recreated kinematics. The new model accounts for the head’s finite rotation, which is an improvement upon prior models that have been based on a small rotation assumption. Despite the simplicity of the model, we show that the proposed 2D elastic finite rotation head model predicts comparable strains to a more detailed finite element head model. We will also present our recent work on a new experimental-analytical methodology for determining the critical values for the tissue strain and strain rates. The new methodology involves inertial compression of cortical spheroids (mini-brains) using centrifugation; continuum mechanics based modeling and finite element calculations to estimate strains; LIVE-DEAD assay, Hoechst 33342 nuclear staining, and monitoring of neurite network disruption through confocal imaging of β3-tubulin immunostaining to assess cellular injury at 0, 2, 8, and 24 hours post-centrifugation.

For inquiries contact Kyla Kordell.