Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Research

 
Brain Fluidity  |  Fluidity and Geometry  |  Stress-strain Relation  |  Resonance Effect  |  Grey/White Boundary  


The role of the reversal of the rotational direction during repetitive traumatic head accelerations/decelerations

The Kelvin-Voigt (K-V) and the fluid TBI models both predict that when a head is close to the resting point at the end of a uni-directional rotational acceleration/deceleration pulse, the brain matter has a tendency to move in a circular way in the opposite direction with respect to the (sub)domain's boundary motion. Consequently, reversing the rotational direction increases the velocity induced in the brain matter relative to the skull, i.e., a resonance effect appears. The resonance effect is the most pronounced in the K-V model during rotations about the head's center of mass (bottom versus top panels). Shortening the period of the rotational pulses enhances the resonance effect, especially in the nonlinear fluid TBI model. A higher brain matter velocity usually leads to higher strain norm values. Although repetitive bi-directional rotations of the head do not further increase the velocity magnitudes, high strain resonance values are repeatedly created in the same brain locations enhancing the TBI severity/likelihood. Thus, the resonance effect may explain why repetitive shaking of a baby (cf. the Shaken Baby Syndrome) or repetitive blows to both sides of a boxer's head sometimes result in a severe brain injury even though, according to existing brain injury tolerance criteria, each uni-directional head motion should be harmless.


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Magnitude of the velocity relative to the skull |V(x,t)| in a centrally located sagittal and horizontal brain cross-sections during repetitive rotational accelerations/decelerations of the head about its center of mass with BIC36=1000

Brain matter characteristics and average tangential load values at a centrally located sagittal and horizontal cross-sections during two pulses of the uni-directional head rotations

Brain matter characteristics and average tangential load values at a centrally located sagittal and horizontal cross-sections during two pulses of the bi-directional head rotations
 
Linear K-V TBI model
 
Sagittal cross-section
 
Horizontal cross-section
 
Forward rotations
 
Sideways counter-clockwise rotations
 
Repetitive four-pulse uni-directional head rotations lasting for 0.072s
 
Forward/backward rotations
Sideways counter-clockwise/clockwise rotations
 
Repetitive four-pulse bi-directional head rotations lasting for 0.072s
Animation Delay      

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