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和危险的头部伤害，其中一个人可能会暴露于多次重复的轻微头部撞击。单独来看，这些轻微撞击不太可能造成严重伤害。然而，每次暴露可能会导致轻微的组织损伤累积。 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。这项研究将量化重复的头部撞击如何损害大脑/颅骨界面，并评估这种损害如何增加创伤性脑损伤的风险。本研究的数据和方法将为改善轻度创伤性脑损伤的检测提供指导。 这些结果还将增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。这些数据也将导致更准确地了解重复性头部创伤，并改善汽车，头盔和其他保护装置的设计标准。该项目将涉及本科研究人员，并有助于他们的专业发展。 创伤性脑损伤的计算生物力学在历史上一直专注于单一头部撞击，而没有考虑累积损伤，忽略了个体化头部损伤风险的潜在关键组成部分。本研究的目的是描述大脑和颅骨之间界面的渐进性机械损伤，并评估这种连接的损伤如何影响底层脑组织的渐进性损伤。为了实现这一目标，研究小组将通过实验测量组织损伤进展，以响应脑膜和血管实验中的重复暴露，并生成捕获每次暴露损伤的本构模型。一个多尺度建模方法将被用来有效地将微观结构的本构制剂到一个宏观模型的创伤性脑损伤。从这个提案中发展出来的构成公式和计算框架将填补理解大脑和其他神经结构的渐进性损伤所必需的关键知识空白。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

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.