Explore Impacts of Head Motion on Cerebrospinal Fluid Dynamics using Simulation and Real-Time Medical Imaging

运动是身体活动的一种形式，是大脑健康和身体健康之间的联系。锻炼和体育活动对健康的好处是众所周知的。在大多数身体活动中，头部会移动。脑脊液在大脑深处流动，执行许多对大脑功能至关重要的不可替代的任务。例如，脑脊液流量的体积传输可以帮助调节大脑功能，如昼夜节律和某些神经内分泌反应。由于美国人花费大量的时间在日常活动上，因此需要更好地了解头部运动时的脑脊液动力学。这一探索性项目旨在解决知识差距问题。假设是脑室脑脊液流动物理学受到头部运动的影响。如果该项目的结果证明该概念和技术方法是有效和准确的，它们可以使研究将生物流体动力学与理解脑脊液动力学在运动的健康益处中所起的作用联系起来。本计画将发展一种以医学影像为基础的方法，以探讨头部运动对脑内脑脊髓液动力学的影响。该方法使用先进的体内MRI医疗技术，可以跟踪运动中大脑中的不稳定脑脊液流，并使用计算机计算流体动力学模拟对所得脑脊液动力学进行深入研究。开发了基于MRI图像的大脑的解剖学和生理学正确建模。模拟结果和MRI数据进行检查，以揭示关键的流体动力学，如头部运动产生的流动扰动如何增长和衰减，以及CSF流的对流混合如何随头部运动而变化。这种方法有望产生一个深入的和基本的理解脑室脑脊液流动动力学的头部运动的反应。目前还不存在的知识可以帮助揭示神经流体动力学和运动对健康的益处之间的联系。对于更广泛的影响，发现的知识可能会导致对脑疾病和损伤的见解，如脑震荡和创伤性脑损伤。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已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的支持。

Exercise is a form of physical activity and is a link between brain health and body health. The health benefits of exercise and physical activity are well established. During most physical activities, the head moves. Flowing deep inside the brain, the cerebrospinal fluid performs many irreplaceable tasks that are critical to the functioning of the brain. Volume transmission of the cerebrospinal fluid flow, for instance, could help regulate brain functions, such as the circadian rhythm and certain neuroendocrine responses. Because Americans spend a large amount of their time on daily activities, there is a need to gain a better understanding of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics with the head in motion. This exploratory project is designed to address the knowledge gap. The hypothesis is that ventricular cerebrospinal fluid flow physics is impacted by the head motion. If the concept and the technical approach are proven valid and accurate by the results of this project, they could enable studies to link biofluid dynamics toward an understanding of the roles the cerebrospinal fluid dynamics plays in the health benefit of exercises. A medical image-based approach will be developed in this project to examine the effects of head motion on the cerebrospinal fluid dynamics in the brain. The approach uses an advanced in vivo MRI medical technology that can track unsteady cerebrospinal fluid flow in a brain in motion and uses in silico computational fluid dynamics simulation for in-depth investigation of the resulting cerebrospinal fluid dynamics. Anatomically and physiologically correct modeling of the brain based on MRI images are developed. Simulation results and MRI data are examined to unveil crucial fluid dynamics, such as how flow disturbances generated by the head motions grow and decay and how the convective mixing of the CSF flow varies with the head motions. This approach is expected to yield an in-depth and fundamental understanding of the responses of ventricular cerebrospinal flow dynamics to the head motions. The knowledge, which currently does not exist, could help shed lights on connections between the neurological fluid dynamics and the health benefits of exercise. For a broader impact, the knowledge discovered could potentially lead to insights on brain disorders and injury, such as concussion and traumatic brain injury.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.