Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease linked to head impacts. Its distinctive neuropathologic feature is deposition of tau proteins in sulcal depths and in perivascular regions. Previous work has investigated pathological and clinical features of CTE, and here the authors report recent work on exploring the link between strain and strain rate distribution within the brain and location of CTE pathology. The authors used a high fidelity finite element (FE) model of traumatic brain injury (TBI) to test the hypothesis that strain and strain rate produced by head impacts are greatest in sulci, where neuropathology is prominently seen in CTE. The authors also analyzed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data from a large cohort of TBI patients to provide converging evidence from empirical neuroimaging data for the model’s prediction.