The human brain can be squished 10 times as easily as polystyrene foam

Researchers used MRI scans and an algorithm to measure the stiffness and resilience to stress of the mind in residing folks

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Though they might appear like they’re created from rubber, human brains are softer and squishier. Their capability to withstand stress is far lower than the polystyrene foam used for packaging, extra corresponding to that of Jell-O.

Nicholas Bennion at Cardiff University within the UK and his colleagues got down to develop a way for acquiring extra correct measurements of the mind’s bodily properties inside residing people. Most of what we learn about how mind tissue reacts to devices touching it throughout neurosurgery comes from organs which were lower into or eliminated and preserved in chemical substances, which may have an effect on tissue stiffness and resilience.

The researchers carried out MRI scans of individuals mendacity face down after which resist shift the situation of the mind within the cranium. By analysing this information with a machine studying algorithm, they have been capable of work out completely different materials traits of the mind and tissues that join it to the cranium. They quantified how a lot the mind collapses when pressed on, the way it reacts to being pushed sideways and the way springy the connective tissues are.

“If you take a brain which hasn’t been preserved in any way, its stiffness is incredibly low, and it breaks apart very easily. And it really is probably a lot softer than most people realise,” says Bennion.

The crew discovered that mind matter may be compressed as much as 10 instances as simply as polystyrene foam and that its resilience to being pushed sideways is a couple of thousandth of what it might be if it have been created from rubber – its squishiness is corresponding to a slab of Jell-O. Bennion says that the algorithm calculated that the tissues connecting the mind to the cranium have been additionally pretty delicate, presumably to guard the mind from transferring too abruptly.

Though researchers have lengthy recognized that brains are very delicate and really fragile, the brand new research makes that notion exact sufficient to raised inform delicate surgical procedures, says Ellen Kuhl at Stanford University in California.

The new technique, nevertheless, might not absolutely seize the way in which the mind deforms throughout motions extra violent than shifting positions, resembling head trauma in an contact sport or site visitors accident, says Krystyn Van Vliet on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In these conditions, the movement of fluids inside the mind can change its materials properties.

The crew hopes the mannequin can now be used to foretell mind shifts that may happen throughout surgical procedure for every particular person affected person primarily based on pre-operative MRI scans. This might remove the necessity for inserting and re-inserting devices into the mind till they hit the right spot, making procedures much less invasive.

Journal reference: Journal of the Royal Society Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2022.0557