Cellular biomechanics of central nervous system injury

With a growing interest in how the brain responds and remodels itself following a traumatic injury, this chapter outlines the major organizing principles of how to study these injuries in the laboratory and extend these findings back into the clinic. A new repertoire of models is available to examine the response of isolated circuits of the brain in vitro, and to study precisely how mechanical forces applied to even small regions of these circuits can disrupt the entire circuit dysfunction. We review the existing knowledge garnered from these models and our current understanding of mechanically sensitive receptors and channels activated immediately following trauma. In turn, we point to the emergence of in silico models of network function that will lead to an improved understanding of the principles for the remodeling of circuit structure after traumatic, possibly pointing out new biological rules for circuit reassembly that would help guide new therapies for reconstructing brain circuits after trauma.