Microstructural Damage Progression in Repetitive Head Trauma

这项工作将研究重复性轻度创伤性脑损伤。这种类型的伤害是一种重要的和危险的头部伤害类型，其中一个人可能会暴露在几个重复的轻微头部撞击中。单独来看，这些轻微的撞击不太可能造成严重的伤害。然而，每次接触可能会造成轻微的组织损伤，并累积起来。随着时间的推移，这会增加严重脑损伤的风险。大脑和头骨之间的联系决定了每次撞击对大脑的影响。这项研究将量化反复的头部撞击如何损伤脑/颅骨界面，并评估这种损伤如何增加创伤性脑损伤的风险。本研究的数据和方法将为提高轻度创伤性脑损伤的检测提供指导。这些结果也将加强对那些有严重创伤性脑损伤风险的人的预测。最终，这些结果将有助于制定重返工作/娱乐的指导方针。这些数据还将有助于更准确地了解重复性头部创伤，并改进汽车、头盔和其他防护装置的设计标准。该项目将涉及本科生研究人员，并有助于他们的专业发展。向公众推广也将扩大项目的影响范围。创伤性脑损伤的计算生物力学历来关注单一头部撞击，而没有考虑累积损伤，忽略了个体化脑损伤风险的潜在关键组成部分。本研究的目的是表征大脑和颅骨之间界面的进行性机械损伤，并评估这种连接的损伤如何影响潜在脑组织的进行性损伤。为了实现这一目标，研究小组将通过实验测量脑膜和血管在反复暴露下的组织损伤进展，并生成捕获每次暴露损伤的本构模型。多尺度建模方法将被用于有效地将微观结构本构公式纳入创伤性脑损伤的宏观尺度模型。从这个建议中发展出来的本构公式和计算框架将填补理解大脑和其他神经结构的进行性损伤所必需的关键知识空白。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This work will study repetitive mild traumatic brain injury. This type of injury is an important and dangerous type of head injury in which a person may be exposed to several repeated minor head impacts. Individually, these minor impacts are unlikely to cause serious injury. However, each exposure may cause minor tissue damage that accumulates. Over time, this increases the risk of serious brain injury. The connection between the brain and the skull determines how each impact affects the brain. This research will quantify how repeated head impacts damage the brain/skull interface and evaluate how this damage increases the risk of traumatic brain injury. Data and methods from this study will provide guidance to improve detection of mild traumatic brain injury. These results will also enhance prediction of those at risk of severe traumatic brain injury. Ultimately, these results will contribute to return-to-work/play guidelines. These data will also lead to a more accurate understanding of repeated head trauma and improve design criteria for automobiles, helmets, and other protective devices. This project will involve undergraduate researchers and contribute to their professional development. Outreach to the general public will also expand the reach of the project.Computational biomechanics of traumatic brain injury has historically focused on single head impacts and has not considered cumulative damage, ignoring a potentially critical component of individualized head injury risk. The objectives of this research are to characterize progressive mechanical damage at the interface between the brain and the skull and to evaluate how damage to this connection affects progressive damage to the underlying brain tissue. To achieve this objective, the research team will experimentally measure tissue damage progression in response to repeated exposures in experiments on meninges and blood vessels, and generate constitutive models that capture damage with each exposure. A multiscale modeling approach will be used to efficiently incorporate the microstructural constitutive formulations into a macroscale model of traumatic brain injury. The constitutive formulations and computational framework developed from this proposal will fill key knowledge gaps necessary to understand progressive damage to the brain and other neural structures.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.