Investigating the relation between cardiac-induced brain tissue strain and both global boundary conditions and local microstructure

Motivation: Recent developments enabled to measure brain tissue strain as induced by arterial pulsations in detail. This opens the opportunity to study how these strains are affected by the brain’s macroscopic environment and its local microstructure. Goal(s): To explore to what extent the strain principal strain directions can be explained by both global boundary conditions and local tissue microstructure. Approach: Systolic 3D strain measurements of the brain were compared with a brain model and DTI measurements. Results: The first principal strain showed good agreement with the brain model and consistent spatial patterns were observed in comparisons between third principal strain and DTI data. Impact: Our results help confirm previous ideas on how the brain swells during cerebral arterial pulsations while also providing a first view into the relationship between the direction of the Poisson effect and brain microstructure, opening up avenues for further research.