Towards a comprehensive delineation of white matter tract-related deformation [article]

Zhou Zhou, Xiaogai Li, Yuzhe Liu, Madelen Fahlstedt, Marios Georgiadis, Xianghao Zhan, Samuel J. Raymond, Gerald Grant, Svein Kleiven, David Camarillo, Michael Zeineh
2021 bioRxiv   pre-print
AbstractFinite element (FE) models of the human head are valuable instruments to explore the mechanobiological pathway from external loading, localized brain response, and resultant injury risks. The injury predictability of these models depends on the use of effective criteria as injury predictors. The FE-derived normal deformation along white matter (WM) fiber tracts (i.e., tract-oriented strain) has recently been suggested as an appropriate predictor for axonal injury. However, the
more » ... nted strain only represents a partial depiction of the WM fiber tract deformation. A comprehensive delineation of tract-related deformation may improve the injury predictability of the FE head model by delivering new tract-related criteria as injury predictors. Thus, the present study performed a theoretical strain analysis to comprehensively characterize the WM fiber tract deformation by relating the strain tensor of the WM element to its embedded fiber tracts. Three new tract-related strains were proposed, measuring the normal deformation vertical to the fiber tracts (i.e., tract-vertical strain), and shear deformation along and vertical to the fiber tracts (i.e., axial-shear strain and lateral-shear strain, respectively). The injury predictability of these three newly-proposed strain peaks along with the previously-used tract-oriented strain peak and maximum principal strain (MPS) were evaluated by simulating 151 impacts with known outcome (concussion or no-concussion). The results showed that four tract-related strain peaks exhibit superior performance compared to MPS in discriminating concussion and non-concussion cases. This study presents a comprehensive quantification of WM tract-related deformation and advocates the use of orientation-dependent strains as criteria for injury prediction, which may ultimately contribute to an advanced mechanobiological understanding and enhanced computational predictability of brain injury.HighlightDeformation of white matte fiber tracts is directly related to brain injury, but only partially analyzed thus far.A theoretical derivation that comprehensively characterizes white matter tract-related deformation is conducted.Analytical formulas of three novel tract-related strains are presented.Tract-related strain peaks are better predictors for concussion than the maximum principal strain.
doi:10.1101/2021.04.13.439136 fatcat:3pxrfseznvdaloflq77nbafaoq