Research on the laser-brain tissue interaction by finite element analysis

TL;DR

This paper models laser-brain tissue interactions using finite element analysis to simulate light propagation and heat transfer, providing insights into optical imaging and tissue response.

Contribution

It introduces a 2D finite element simulation model for laser-brain interaction, including light diffusion and heat transfer, with specific focus on blood vessel effects.

Findings

Light energy decreases exponentially with depth in brain tissue.

Blood vessels absorb more light, retaining about 85.8% of incident light.

Blood vessel temperature is slightly higher (0.15 K) than surrounding gray matter.

Abstract

The study of the interaction between laser and brain tissue has important theoretical and practical significance for brain imaging. A two-dimensional simulation model that studies the propagation of light and heat transfer in brain tissue based on finite element has been developed by using the commercial finite element simulation software COMSOL Multiphysics. In this study, the model consists of three parts of 1) a layer of water on the surface of the brain, 2) brain tissue and 3) short pulsed laser source (the wavelength is 840nm). The laser point source is located in the middle of the layer of water above the brain tissue and irradiates the brain tissue. The propagation of light in brain tissue was simulated by solving the diffusion equation. And the temperature changes of gray matter and blood vessels were achieved by solving the biological heat transfer equation. The simulation results show that the light energy in the brain tissue decreases exponentially with the increase of penetration depth. Since the cerebral blood vessels have a stronger absorption on light compared with the surrounding tissues, the remaining light energy of the blood vessels in the cerebral cortex is ~ 85.8% of the remaining light energy in the surrounding gray matter. In the process of biological heat transfer, due to more light deposition in blood vessels, the temperature of blood vessels is 0.15 K higher than that of gray matter, and the temperature of gray matter hardly changes. This research is helpful to understand the propagation of light in the brain and the interaction between them, and has certain theoretical guiding for the optical imaging of the brain.