A TRIPHASIC MECHANO-ELECTROCHEMICAL MODEL OF BRAIN NEURO-MECHANICS: APPLICATION TO NORMAL PRESSURE HYDROCEPHALUS

Abstract

In recent years, the fields of brain biomechanics and neural engineering have started to play an increasingly important role to modern neuroscience. Although the object of study of these two research areas is the brain, the two fields have developed independently of each other, neglecting any possible linkage between the electric brain and the mechanical brain. The aim of the present paper is to formulate the first neuro-mechanical model of the brain that will couple the electro-chemical and mechanical properties of the brain. We assume that the brain tissue is a charged hydrated soft tissue made of a solid phase, an interstitial fluid phase and an ion phase with two monovalent ion species. To investigate the mechano-electrochemical coupling phenomena of the brain tissue, we study the onset of normal pressure hydrocephalus due to a change in the ionic concentrations of the ventricular cerebrospinal fluid in the absence of an elevated intracranial pressure.