Presently used head injury criteria have lately been questioned for several reasons, and there is much evidence to show that a deeper understanding of the injury-producing mechanisms is needed. It is discussed what kinds of research are needed, and a specific model study is described. The model is intended to provide a better understanding of the skull-brain system when subjected to different kinds of trauma, thus facilitating the planning of research specifically aimed at producing better tolerance criteria.

A series of progressively more refined models of the skull-brain system has been used to qualitatively study the effect of different head impact directions and locations. The model can be subjected to sudden linear and/or angular accelerations. Localized trauma to the head resulting in local compression of the brain can be simulated by means of sudden injections of fluid. Observables are normally internal relative displacements. High speed cinematogrephy is used to capture the motion of markers at different depths in the transparent model. So far only two-dimensional studies have been performed but based on results from earlier two- or three-dimensional mathematical models the validity of results can be judged.