Use of Brain Biomechanical Models for Monitoring Impact Exposure in Contact Sports

Songbai Ji, Mazdak Ghajari, Haojie Mao, Reuben H. Kraft, Marzieh Hajiaghamemar, Matthew B. Panzer, Rémy Willinger, Michael D. Gilchrist, Svein Kleiven, Joel D. Stitzel

Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 2022

Abstract

Head acceleration measurement sensors are now widely deployed in the field to monitor head kinematic exposure in contact sports. The wealth of impact kinematics data provides valuable, yet challenging, opportunities to study the biomechanical basis of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and subconcussive kinematic exposure. Head impact kinematics are translated into brain mechanical responses through physics-based computational simulations using validated brain models to study the mechanisms of injury. First, this article reviews representative legacy and contemporary brain biomechanical models primarily used for blunt impact simulation. Then, it summarizes perspectives regarding the development and validation of these models, and discusses how simulation results can be interpreted to facilitate injury risk assessment and head acceleration exposure monitoring in the context of contact sports. Recommendations and consensus statements are presented on the use of validated brain models in conjunction with kinematic sensor data to understand the biomechanics of mTBI and subconcussion. Mainly, there is general consensus that validated brain models have strong potential to improve injury…

Cite as (BibTeX)

@article{ji-2022-use-of-brain-biomechanical,
  title={Use of Brain Biomechanical Models for Monitoring Impact Exposure in Contact Sports},
  author={Songbai Ji and Mazdak Ghajari and Haojie Mao and Reuben H. Kraft and Marzieh Hajiaghamemar and Matthew B. Panzer and Rémy Willinger and Michael D. Gilchrist and Svein Kleiven and Joel D. Stitzel},
  journal={Annals of Biomedical Engineering},
  year={2022},
  doi={10.1007/s10439-022-02999-w}
}