Mechanical morphogenesis

The development and evolution of complex neocortical organisations is thought to result from the interaction of genetic and activity-dependent processes. But a third type of process – mechanical morphogenesis – may also play an important role. Homogeneous growth of elastic tissues can induce a rich variety of forms (including folding), with heterogeneous patterns of residual stress.

Here we provide an intuitive introduction to the physics of buckling using interactive, open source implementations of different mechanical systems. The simulations run directly on the web browsers, without any other software.

Hyperelastic materials

Deformation is computed relative to a resting configuration, and stress is derived from an elastic energy function.

Residual stress

Growth is modelled as a local change in the rest configuration. The new rest configuration is not necessarily compatible with the continuity of the tissue, which translates into gradients of residual stress.

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Buckling

In certain cases, growth may lead to buckling instabilities, and then, to non-linear changes in geometry, such as folding, wrinkling and creasing.

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Authors and Contributors

Roberto Toro (@r03ert0) and Ophélie Foubet.

References

Foubet O and Toro R (2015) Mechanical morphogenesis and the development of neocortical organisation. BioRxiv, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/021311