Mechanical properties of the cerebrum: Application in neurosurgical procedures

Abstract

The development of robotics technology, especially the emergence of automatic surgical tools and robots, as well as the rapid advances in virtual reality techniques, require closer examination of the mechanical properties of the brain and its tissues at moderate and slow loading velocities corresponding to the strain rates of surgical procedures. In order to obtain comprehensive information about the mechanical properties of the brain, non-destructive instrumented indentation was performed on the adult ovine cerebrum under various conditions, i.e. (i) in four measuring regions (consistent with the frontal and parietal lobes of both cerebral hemispheres) and (ii) at three loading velocities. The shear and elastic moduli show loading velocity dependence and weak regional dependence. The mean shear and elastic moduli of the ovine brain's frontal lobe are higher than those of its parietal lobe. In addition, the left lobe is insensibly stiffer than the right lobe at each of the loading velocities. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.