Blast-induced traumatic brain injury : Mechanism of injury and recovery by brain-machine interface

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The primary blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI)phase represents the response of brain tissue to the initial blast wave. Among the four phases of bTBI, there is a remarkable paucity of information about the cause of primary bTBI. There is increasing demand to understand mechanism and pathophysiology of bTBI. Understanding the mechanism of blast propagation into skull, and the development of animal model that is validated in terms of shock wave physics and can be conducted on the bench top is a key issue to understand the mechanism, pathophysiology, and to develop proper treatment and protection for this"new" form of TBI.We have evaluated the mechanism of propagation of blast wave and shock wave in terms of visualization, pressure measurement, and numerical simulation. The experiments in brain phantom revealed that propagated wave through the skull has temporal increase of pressure on the side of wave entry and on the opposite side to the entry. The latter may explain the mechanism of contra coup injury, which is often observed in severe traumatic brain injury. The distribution of wave distribution correlated with the histological damage in animal model experiments.The results of present investigation not only has impact on understanding the mechanism of blast wave-induced traumatic brain injury, but also helps to develop brain protection methods in traumatic brain injury by high energy traffic accident, and traumatic injury by high pressure waves during natural/industrial disasters.