Numerical simulation of mass diffusion in brain tissues
Pages 111-117
Adrian Neculae, Dan Curticapean
Abstract
In the brain-cell microenvironment, in absence of electrical activity inside the cells or without an externally applied electric field, the movement of ions is governed by diffusion. In this complex medium, the primary constraints on long-range diffusion are due to the geometrical properties of the medium, especially tortuosity and volume fraction, which are the most important parameters that incorporate local geometrical properties such as connectivity and pore size. In this paper we present a set of numerical simulations for the evolution of the concentration profile for an injected substance in brain tissues. The computations are performed by solving the diffusion equation in the extracellular space of the tissue, modeled as a porous medium. Three different types of cells are considered and the influence of the geometrical properties is analyzed. This modeling may partially replace the need for some types of diffusion experiments in brain tissue.