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Updated: Jun 26, 2026
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A Large Lateral Craniotomy Procedure for Mesoscale Wide-field Optical Imaging of Brain Activity
Published on: May 7, 2017
The frontal cortex is activated during learning of endoscopic procedures
Kenoki Ohuchida1, Hajime Kenmotsu, Atsuyuki Yamamoto
1Department of Advanced Medical Initiatives, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan.
Surgical Endoscopy
|January 28, 2009
Summary
Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) reveals distinct brain activity patterns during endoscopic surgical skill acquisition. Trainees show increased frontal cortex activation, suggesting NIRS can assess learning in surgical education.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Medical Education
- Surgical Technology
Background:
- Objective assessment tools for endoscopic surgery training are advancing.
- Functional brain studies during the learning of endoscopic surgical skills are lacking.
- Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) offers a non-invasive method to assess cortical activation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate cortical activation using NIRS during endoscopic surgical tasks.
- To compare brain activity between surgical experts, trainees, and novices.
- To evaluate the potential of NIRS in assessing surgical skill acquisition.
Main Methods:
- 21 subjects (4 experts, 4 trainees, 13 novices) performed suturing and knot-tying tasks.
- Cortical activation was measured using NIRS, assessing hemoglobin oxygenation changes.
- Data were analyzed to compare frontal channel activity across skill levels.
Main Results:
- Surgical experts and novices showed no significant frontal cortical activation.
- Surgical trainees exhibited increased oxy-hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) and total-hemoglobin (total-Hb) levels.
- Significant differences in oxy-Hb and total-Hb were observed between trainees and both experts and novices.
- Additional training enhanced frontal cortex oxy-Hb in novices but not experts.
Conclusions:
- NIRS is a feasible tool for assessing brain activation during endoscopic surgery.
- Findings suggest NIRS can differentiate learning-related brain changes in surgical trainees.
- NIRS has potential to significantly impact the development of endoscopic surgical training and assessment methods.
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