On the appropriateness of modelling brain parenchyma as a biphasic continuum.

Computational methods originally developed for analysis in engineering have been applied to the analysis of biological materials for many years. One particular application of these engineering tools is the brain, allowing researchers to predict the behaviour of brain tissue in various traumatic, surgical and medical scenarios. Typically two different approaches have been used to model deformation of brain tissue: single-phase models which treat the brain as a viscoelastic material, and biphasic models which treat the brain as a porous deformable medium through which liquid can move. In order to model the brain as a biphasic continuum, the hydraulic conductivity of the solid phase is required; there are many theoretical values for this conductivity in the literature, with variations of up to three orders of magnitude.