# Unpacking the Importance of the Structural Injuries of MTBI

> **NIH NIH R56** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2020 · $593,250

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) is a major public health problem with U.S. annual incidence of over 2
million. We propose to use an innovative paradigm in bicompartment diffusion MRI model parameter
estimation to study the dynamic longitudinal microstructural changes that occur after MTBI and to investigate
the link between white matter injury, cortical volume loss and cognitive outcome. Our preliminary findings
suggest diffusion-based biophysical parameters of axon integrity including intra-axonal diffusivity (Da) and
axonal water fraction (f) can detect microstructure changes in MTBI and provide more biophysically relevant
information compared with traditional, empirical measures of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). We will employ a
rotationally invariant formalism and parameter estimation scheme for the so-called “Standard Model” of
diffusion in white matter which unifies previous attempts of multi-compartment white matter modeling over the
past decade, now a widely accepted benchmark for multi-compartment modeling of diffusion in the brain. We
will further incorporate spherical tensor encoding (STE) to increase the precision in axon-specific
microstructure parameters central to this project and use an optimized and clinically feasible protocol for this
translational project. The proposed work is expected to bridge the gap between macroscopic and
microstructural alterations relevant to cognitive status after injury, revealing the dynamic structural changes
occurring after injury and pointing to imaging biomarkers most relevant to cognitive outcome. The results of this
work are expected to be significant from both scientific and clinical perspectives by 1) advancing basic
knowledge of injury in an impactful way, 2) discovering biophysically meaningful imaging biomarkers relevant
to cognitive status in MTBI, and 3) mechanistically linking microstructural and macrostructural brain alterations,
in three respective specific aims. This will provide a means toward quantitative tracking of injury and recovery
in the cognitive domain, and tracking of efficacy of targeted cognitive therapeutic strategies such as cognitive
rehabilitation and integrated behavioral health treatment in patients with MTBI.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10263451
- **Project number:** 1R56NS119767-01
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Sohae Chung
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $593,250
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2021-08-14

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10263451

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10263451, Unpacking the Importance of the Structural Injuries of MTBI (1R56NS119767-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10263451. Licensed CC0.

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