Changes in functional neuroimaging measures as novices gain proficiency on the fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery suturing task.

SIGNIFICANCE: As trainees practice fundamental surgical skills, they typically rely on performance measures such as time and errors, which are limited in their sensitivity.

AIM: The goal of our study was to evaluate the use of portable neuroimaging measures to map the neural processes associated with learning basic surgical skills.

APPROACH: Twenty-one subjects completed 15 sessions of training on the fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery (FLS) suture with intracorporeal knot-tying task in a box trainer. Functional near infrared spectroscopy data were recorded using an optode montage that covered the prefrontal and sensorimotor brain areas throughout the task. Average oxy-hemoglobin (HbO) changes were determined for repetitions performed during the first week of training compared with the third week of training. Statistical differences between the time periods were evaluated using a general linear model of the HbO changes.

RESULTS: Average performance scores across task repetitions increased significantly from the first day to the last day of training ( p < 0.01 ). During the first day of training, there was significant lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation. On the final day, significant activation was observed in the PFC, as well as the sensorimotor areas. When comparing the two periods, significant differences in activation ( p < 0.05 ) were found for the right medial PFC and the right inferior parietal gyrus. While gaining proficiency, trainees activated the perception-action cycle to build a perceptual model and then apply the model to improve task execution.

CONCLUSIONS: Learners engaged the sensorimotor areas more substantially as they developed skill on the FLS suturing task. These findings are consistent with findings for the FLS pattern cutting task and contribute to the development of objective metrics for skill evaluation.