ArticleJournal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials2018
Brain stiffens post mortem.
Article in Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- Forensic tissue mechanics of diabetes mellitus-related brain induration.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2026Article
- Predicting Carotid Body Tumors' Hardness via Multimodal Imaging: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Spatial scale of indentation explains shift in ratio between spinal cord gray and white matter stiffness.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Exploring the Role of Vascular Factors and Tissue Properties in Pulsatile Brain Deformation.NMR in biomedicine · 2026Article
- Understanding Glioblastoma Dynamics Using 3D Organoids and Engineered Extracellular Matrix.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Mechanical characterization of human versus porcine brain tissue under large strains.Biomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology · 2026Article
- Brain mechanics and cognition: the role of rodent MR elastography in identifying cellular mechanisms.Frontiers in cognition · 2026Article
- Measurement force, speed, and postmortem time affect the ratio of CNS gray-to-white-matter elasticity.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Brillouin microscopy in cancer research: a review.Journal of biomedical optics · 2025Review
- Mechanical Characterisation of Grey, White, and Interface Behaviour in the Brain.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2025Article
- Understanding proneural-mesenchymal transition using patient-derived glioma stem-like cell (GSC) organoids and engineered extracellular matrix.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Mechanical characterization of brain tissue: experimental techniques, human testing considerations, and perspectives.Acta biomaterialia · 2025Review
- A Comprehensive Analysis of Inconsistencies in the Brain's Conventional Ex Vivo Mechanical Experiments.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2025Review
- Perivascular interactions and tissue properties modulate directional glymphatic transport in the brain.Fluids and barriers of the CNS · 2025Article
- Article
- The influence of cooling on biomechanical time since death estimations using ovine brain tissue.International journal of legal medicine · 2024Article
- The Networking Brain: How Extracellular Matrix, Cellular Networks, and Vasculature Shape the In Vivo Mechanical Properties of the Brain.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Review
- Post-mortem changes of anisotropic mechanical properties in the porcine brain assessed by MR elastography.Brain multiphysics · 2024Article
- Comparison of Deformation Patterns Excited in the Human Brain In Vivo by Harmonic and Impulsive Skull Motion.Journal of biomechanical engineering · 2023Article
- Myelination dictates axonal viscoelasticity.The European journal of neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Alterations in brain rheology are increasingly recognized as a diagnostic marker for various neurological conditions. Magnetic resonance elastography now allows us to assess brain rheology repeatably, reproducibly, and non-invasively in vivo. Recent elastography studies suggest that brain stiffness decreases one percent per year during normal aging, and is significantly reduced in Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis. While existing studies successfully compare brain stiffnesses across different populations, they fail to provide insight into changes within the same brain. Here we characterize rheological alterations in one and the same brain under extreme metabolic changes: alive and dead. Strikingly, the storage and loss moduli of the cerebrum increased by 26% and 60% within only three minutes post mortem and continued to increase by 40% and 103% within 45 minutes. Immediate post mortem stiffening displayed pronounced regional variations; it was largest in the corpus callosum and smallest in the brainstem. We postulate that post mortem stiffening is a manifestation of alterations in polarization, oxidation, perfusion, and metabolism immediately after death. Our results suggest that the stiffness of our brain-unlike any other organ-is a dynamic property that is highly sensitive to the metabolic environment. Our findings emphasize the importance of characterizing brain tissue in vivo and question the relevance of ex vivo brain tissue testing as a whole. Knowing the true stiffness of the living brain has important consequences in diagnosing neurological conditions, planning neurosurgical procedures, and modeling the brain's response to high impact loading.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.