The brain is the most complex organ of our central nervous system. It is responsible for controlling all the other organs in the body, as well as breathing, heart beat and temperature regulation. It is also the processor of all conscious and unconscious stimuli, thought and feelings, learning and memory. As a material, the brain is an inhomogeneous, multi-scaled and multi-layered, inter-connected network of neurons, glial cells, blood vessels and extracellular matrix. The function of each of these components is interconnected and modulated by the activity of the others. The mechanical parameters of the brain are determined from both the constituent elements and their electro-chemical and mechanical interactions at all length scales.

In recent years, a lot of progress has been made in the fields of brain biomechanics and neuroscience. However, the two research areas have developed independently of each other with little cross-fertilization, neglecting any possible linkage between the electric brain and the mechanical brain. The lack of fundamental knowledge about the interactions between the electrical and mechanical properties of the brain severely inhibits the ability to interpret any neural activity data. It also impairs the ability to intelligently simulate the brain responses to electric and mechanic stimuli, and impedes the development of a wide range of feasible medical therapies.