Basic study of brain injury mechanism

The purpose of this study is to discuss the mechanism of brain injury experimentally paying attention to the pressure changes on the surface of a brain agar phantom generated by a cavitation. In this paper, first, an experimental system for performing an simple impact experiment is presented. A simple human head model consists of a skull, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and brain tissue, represented by acrylic resin, water and agar, respectively. Second, we measured the pressure changes on the surface of the brain agar phantom during impact. We also observed the behavior of the simple head model using a high-speed camera. From the photographs taken by the high-speed camera, we confirmed that cavitation bubbles occurred at the contrecoup side. And the surface of the brain agar phantom at the contrecoup side was also destroyed. From these results, the destruction of the surface of the brain agar phantom at the contrecoup side, during impact is caused by pressure changes generated by the cavitation.