Abstract

The underlying mechanics surrounding vulnerability of human brains in response to impact is critical to our ability to diagnose and treat traumatic brain injury (TBI), but our understanding of brain mechanical behavior is incomplete. Tagged MRI (tMRI) and magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) are two imaging techniques that are used to visualize and quantify deformation fields in human brains in vivo. The objective of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of brain vulnerability, by quantitively analyzing deformation fields extracted from in vivo human imaging studies. This was achieved through the following aims: (1) Extract mode shapes and natural frequencies of 3D brain deformation from transient strain data collected from human brains in vivo; (2) Quantitatively compare deformations in the human brains induced by harmonic head motion to the modes of deformation estimated from impulsive motion; and (3) explore the effects of (i) anatomical features like brain size, brain shape, brain age, and (ii) details of imposed head motion, on brain vulnerability and the similarity of brain deformation observed in different scans in different individuals.

Committee Chair

Philip Bayly

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Author's Department

Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Author's School

McKelvey School of Engineering

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

5-14-2024

Language

English (en)

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