Temperature Effects on Brain Tissue in Compression

TL;DR

This study investigates how temperature affects the mechanical properties of porcine brain tissue during compression, finding no significant differences between room and body temperatures at tested strain rates.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the temperature independence of brain tissue mechanics in compression tests, aiding understanding of TBI mechanisms.

Findings

No significant stress difference between 22°C and 37°C

Mechanical properties are consistent across tested temperatures

Results inform brain injury modeling at different temperatures

Abstract

Extensive research has been carried out for at least 50 years to understand the mechanical properties of brain tissue in order to understand the mechanisms of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The observed large variability in experimental results may be due to the inhomogeneous nature of brain tissue and to the broad range of test conditions. However, test temperature is also considered as one of the factors influencing the properties of brain tissue. In this research, the mechanical properties of porcine brain have been investigated at 22C (room temperature) and at 37C (body temperature) while maintaining a constant preservation temperature of approximately 4-5C. Unconfined compression tests were performed at dynamic strain rates of 30 and 50/s using a custom made test apparatus. There was no significant difference (p = 0.8559 - 0.9290) between the average engineering stresses of the brain tissue at the two different temperature conditions. The results of this study should help to understand the behavior of brain tissue at different temperature conditions, particularly in unconfined compression tests.