Toward a Unified Lexicon in Traumatic Brain Injury: Defining the Mechanism of Injury

In the field of traumtic brain injury (TBI) we have often witnessed miscommunication arise when articles and presentations are not adequately precise with the language describing their TBI models and/or findings. The lack of precise, consistent terminology to describe injury mechanisms across biological scales and temporal phases impedes communication. We propose that at the cellular scale, standardizing the definitions of primary and secondary injury as distinct biological mechanisms—rather than sequential stages—can help advance our understanding of TBI, facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration, and enable more effective comparisons across experimental models, ultimately leading to improved diagnosis and treatment strategies.