Precisely controllable traumatic brain injury devices for rodent models

The purpose of this work is to design novel, modular devices in order to reproduce traumatic brain injury in the rat and mouse models: fluid percussion injury (FPI), controlled cortical impact (CCI) and the Shock tube. Commercially available TBI devices are often unimethodical, expensive and sensitive to experimental variability. To achieve maximum control and sensitivity, in our first device, we utilized a closed loop voice coil control device to more accurately and precisely generate the temporal force function delivered by the CCI and FPI methods. This device has generated pressures comparable to the ones from literature where commercially available devices were utilized. Upon exposure to a moderate parasagittal TBI from this FPI device, experimental rats have shown comparable pathological effects as has been discussed in literature for similar levels of injury. The intent of the second device, the shock tube, which uses a slightly different technique but is nonetheless modular and precise; is also to induce blast related TBI in small animals. Initial studies would include in vitro bench testing with a pressure transducer to compare results obtained from literature using other shock tubes.