Open AccessThe Influence of Shear Anisotropy in mTBI: A White Matter Constitutive Model
Author(s) -
Fatma Abdullatif Madouh,
K.T. Ramesh
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
annals of biomedical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1573-9686
pISSN - 0090-6964
DOI - 10.1007/s10439-019-02321-1
Subject(s) - white matter , anisotropy , traumatic brain injury , constitutive equation , fractional anisotropy , diffuse axonal injury , mechanics , physics , finite element method , psychology , medicine , optics , thermodynamics , psychiatry , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology
We examine the influence of shear anisotropy of brain tissue on the potential for mild traumatic brain injury. First we develop a new constitutive description for the white matter in the brain that can capture the anisotropic behavior of the white matter in both tension and shear. The material parameters for the models are determined using a set of three experiments already published in the literature. The calibrated and parameterized model is then implemented in a computational (finite element) model of the head. This computational model is two-dimensional and is used to simulate a previously published injury-causing event in the National Hockey League, using axonal strain as criterion to assess the level of diffuse axonal injury. It is demonstrated that the inclusion of shear anisotropy affects both the nature and the extent of predicted injury. Further, the locations of the predicted injury are more consistent with observations in the literature.