Peaks and Distributions of White Matter Tract-related Strains in Bicycle Helmeted Impacts: Implication for Helmet Ranking and Optimization

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in cyclists is a growing public health problem, with helmets being the major protection gear. Finite element head models have been increasingly used to engineer safer helmets often by mitigating brain strain peaks. However, how different helmets alter the spatial distribution of brain strain remains largely unknown. Besides, existing research primarily used maximum principal strain (MPS) as the injury parameter, while white matter fiber tract-related strains, increasingly recognized as effective predictors for TBI, have rarely been used for helmet evaluation. To address these research gaps, we used an anatomically detailed head model with embedded fiber tracts to simulate fifty-one helmeted impacts, encompassing seventeen bicycle helmets under three impact locations. We assessed the helmet performance based on four tract-related strains characterizing the normal and shear strain oriented along and perpendicular to the fiber tract, as well as the prevalently used MPS. Our results showed that both the helmet model and impact location affected the strain peaks. Interestingly, we noted that different helmets did not alter strain distribution, except for one helmet under one specific impact location. Moreover, our analyses revealed that helmet ranking outcome based on strain peaks was affected by the choice of injury metrics (Kendall’s Tau coefficient: 0.58–0.93). Significant correlations were noted between tract-related strains and angular motion-based injury metrics. This study provided new insights into computational brain biomechanics and highlighted the helmet ranking outcome was dependent on the choice of injury metrics. Our results also hinted that the performance of helmets could be augmented by mitigating the strain peak and optimizing the strain distribution with accounting the selective vulnerability of brain subregions and more research was needed to develop region-specific injury criteria.