Progress on Tissue-Level, Functional Tolerance Criteria and Material Properties of the Living Brain with Anatomical Resolution

Determining failure limits for biological tissues is necessary for predicting the injury potential of a loading scenario. For brain tissue, cell death and changes in electrophysiological function are more meaningful than mechanical failure criteria. Interim data is presented on a functional tolerance criterion for the hippocampus. In addition, material properties of the hippocampus were measured with the atomic force microscope. The CA1 subfield was significantly stiffer than the rest of the hippocampus. Both the tolerance criterion and material properties can be incorporated into computer models to increase their biofidelity and extend their capabilities to predict biological outcomes.