Mechanics of the brain: perspectives, challenges, and opportunities
Alain Goriely,Mgd Marc Geers,Gerhard Holzapfel,Jayaratnam Jayamohan,Antoine Jérusalem,Sivabal Sivaloganathan,W Waney Squier,Jaw Hans van Dommelen,Sarah L. Waters,Ellen Kuhl +9 more
TLDR
It is shown that classical mechanical concepts including deformations, stretch, strain, strain rate, pressure, and stress play a crucial role in modulating both brain form and brain function.Abstract:
The human brain is the continuous subject of extensive investigation aimed at understanding its behavior and function. Despite a clear evidence that mechanical factors play an important role in regulating brain activity, current research efforts focus mainly on the biochemical or electrophysiological activity of the brain. Here, we show that classical mechanical concepts including deformations, stretch, strain, strain rate, pressure, and stress play a crucial role in modulating both brain form and brain function. This opinion piece synthesizes expertise in applied mathematics, solid and fluid mechanics, biomechanics, experimentation, material sciences, neuropathology, and neurosurgery to address today’s open questions at the forefront of neuromechanics. We critically review the current literature and discuss challenges related to neurodevelopment, cerebral edema, lissencephaly, polymicrogyria, hydrocephaly, craniectomy, spinal cord injury, tumor growth, traumatic brain injury, and shaken baby syndrome. The multi-disciplinary analysis of these various phenomena and pathologies presents new opportunities and suggests that mechanical modeling is a central tool to bridge the scales by synthesizing information from the molecular via the cellular and tissue all the way to the organ level.read more
Citations
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Mechanical properties of gray and white matter brain tissue by indentation.
Silvia Budday,Richard J. Nay,Rijk de Rooij,Paul Steinmann,Thomas J. Wyrobek,Timothy C. Ovaert,Ellen Kuhl +6 more
TL;DR: It is found that indenting thick, intact coronal slices eliminates the common challenges associated with small specimens: it naturally minimizes boundary effects, dehydration, swelling, and structural degradation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Materials and technologies for soft implantable neuroprostheses
TL;DR: This review discusses materials-based approaches to overcome the physical and mechanical mismatch at the tissue–implant interface and to design long-term neurointegrated prostheses.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mechanical characterization of human brain tissue.
Silvia Budday,Gerhard Sommer,Christoph Birkl,Christian Langkammer,Johannes Haybaeck,J Kohnert,M Bauer,Friedrich Paulsen,Paul Steinmann,Ellen Kuhl,Gerhard Holzapfel,Gerhard Holzapfel +11 more
TL;DR: This work performs a sequence of experimental tests on the same brain specimen to characterize the regional and directional behavior, and supplements these tests with DTI and histology to explore to which extent the macrostructural response is a result of the underlying microstructure.
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Cerebrovascular Smooth Muscle Cells as the Drivers of Intramural Periarterial Drainage of the Brain
TL;DR: The hypothesis that the cerebrovascular smooth muscle cells, whose cycles of contraction and relaxation generate vasomotion, are the drivers of intramural periarterial drainage (IPAD) is tested.
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