An Anatomically Representative Atlas-Based Finite Element Model of the Human Brain for Studying Brian Injury Biomechanics: Development, Validation and Comparison to Existing Models

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of disability and injury-related death. To enhance our ability to prevent such injuries, we can study brain response using validated finite element (FE) models. In the current study, a high-resolution, anatomically accurate FE model was developed from the International Consortium for Brain Mapping (ICBM) brain atlas. Due to the wide variation in published brain material parameters, a technique called Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) was employed to optimize the brain material properties against three experimental cadaver tests to achieve ideal biomechanics. Additionally, pretension and thickness of the falx were varied in a lateral impact configuration. The ABM was subjected to the boundary conditions from three high-rate experimental cadaver tests with different parameter combinations for each test. Brain displacements at the experimental neutral density target (NDT) locations in the model were compared to the displacements observed experimentally and error was quantified using CORA (CORrelation and Analysis), a method to evaluate the correlation of two curves. An average CORA score was computed for each variation and maximized to identify the optimal combination of parameters. The strongest relationships between CORA and material parameters were observed for the shear parameters. Using brain properties obtained through multi-objective optimization, the ABM was validated in three impact configurations and shows good agreement with experimental data. The final model developed in this study consists of optimized brain material properties and is validated in three different, multidirectional cadaver impacts against local brain displacement data.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Miller, Logan

• Brain model

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/57258

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/57258