Head Trauma Model Systems

Abstract

The Latin origin of the term concussion, concutere, commonly referred to a violent shaking or agitation, as in an earthquake. The first recorded use of the term in a clinical context dates from the sixteenth century, during which concussion or commotio cerebri was used to designate the effects of injuries to the brain without fracture to the skull (Johnson, 1634). Quite appropriately, concussion has subsequently been applied collectively to the wide range of biomechanical, physiologic, and behavioral events that accompany the application of brief mechanical forces to the central nervous system. The origins of these impacts are diverse and may include such occurrences as motor vehicle and sporting accidents, falls, and attacks with blunt instruments. Thus, the physical (i.e., biomechanical) characteristics of various clinical manifestations of concussion may vary widely. This variability in the biomechanical events present in human head injury has, no doubt, contributed to the wide variety of animal models used to study this phenomenon as well as to the continuing study of the biomechanical events necessary and/or sufficient to produce concussion. However, it is generally agreed that the duration of mechanical loading producing concussion does not exceed about 200 msec, since longer durations produce significantly different effects associated with crushing of the skull by static loading. In contrast to the brief biomechanical events associated with concussive injury, static loading does not produce unconsciousness (Ommaya, 1982; Povlishock, 1989; Russell and Schiller, 1949).KeywordsTraumatic Brain InjuryHead InjuryControl Cortical ImpactTraumatic Brain Injury ModelFluid Percussion InjuryThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.