A partnership has been developed between Force Protection Inc. and the Medical University of South Carolina in an attempt to create crash-test dummies with a faux brain that can be used to study the impact of trauma to the cerebrum. Earlier this month, Force Protection and MUSC announced the opening of their Force Protection Center for Brain Research at MUSC that is dedicated to traumatic brain injury. The center houses a Siemens 3-Tesla MRI scanner known for its extremely detailed images. Neurologist and psychiatrist Dr. Mark George will be heading the project and has focused on brain imaging most of his career. He says the problem with older scanners is that they cannot detect fine frays in the neuro-connections that make up the brain. “The problem with this type of brain injury is that it’s not easily detectable. People ask, ‘Are they faking it?’ And that sets up this terrible dialogue. The reason it goes undetected is that traumatic brain injury is a fraying of the cable and that is below the resolution of most scanners,” explained Dr. George. The project is still in its discovery phase and is exploring the best alternative for simulating the neuro-connections of the brain. It is the unfortunate plight of our soldiers returning from war that triggered this partnership, but the long term and far reaching significance will benefit all who have suffered from a traumatic brain injury.