About

This Euromech colloquium will be part of a larger scientific event, the Lorentz Workshop "Bridging the Gap: from Brain Mechanics to Brain Dynamics" .

In sessions sponsored by Euromech, we will present the theoretical and experimental state-of-the-art about brain microcirculation, cerebrospinal fluid/interstitialfluids flows and brain tissue mechanics, which have largely advanced along parallel, minimally-interacting pathways. We will outline the important unresolved questions remaining in each of these fields. This includes: how to couple approaches focusing on different scales to incorporate biological mechanisms or anatomical realism in the modeling, which is often based on idealized geometries or neglects anisotropies of the microstructure (fibers orientation); how to account for the enhanced understanding brought by the models to improve interpretation of experiments based on complex imaging techniques.

We will also highlight the potential of combining knowledge from these fields to develop a global approach of brain mechanics linking molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ scales and enabling to understand the transition between health and disease. For example, can the recent understanding on the mechanics of cortical folding help model normal vascular morphogenesis or diseased induced (e.g. tumor) neo-vascularization ?

Delegates will be drawn from the theoretical and experimental fluid and solid mechanics communities. To ensure the relevance with regard to the understanding of fundamental processes in the brain and clinical applications, we will invite leading figures from fundamental and clinical neurosciences, which will also facilitate new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations.