Response of Brain Tissue Mechanical Properties to Applied Pre-Strain in Magnetic Resonance Elastography

This study uses magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) with incremental compression to measure the apparent viscoelastic properties of bovine brain tissue as pre-strain is applied. Results from our tissue-agar phantom showed an increase in stiffness, and a decrease in damping ratio for the bovine brain. The agar showed an increase in stiffness and no consistent change in damping ratio. This research serves as the foundation for future studies measuring the nonlinear properties of human cadaveric brain tissue. Output from this work will be instrumental in advancing current traumatic brain injury (TBI) models.