Brain & Neurorehabilitation  2011;4(1):12-20

doi:10.12786/bn.2011.4.1.12

Animal Models of Traumatic Brain Injury.

Seong Eun KOH 1

Affiliations

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Keywords

injury model; neurobehavioral assessment; traumatic brain injury

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

English

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury could be used to describe all injuries to the brain caused by external mechanical forces. It shows a variety of clinical manifestations from mild to severe forms and can result to death. Moderate to severe injuries can produce disabilities on physical, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional aspects. Animal models of traumatic brain injury have been developed to reproduce characteristics of human brain injury, to understand molecular and cellular pathophysiology and neurobehavioral outcomes following trauma and to find out the promising pharmacological drugs or rehabilitative skills to treat. This article reviewed the current experimental traumatic brain injury models, including weight drop, fluid percussion, and controlled cortical impact, and also the neurobehavioral assessments that are most commonly used to measure loss of function.