Emotional visual stimuli and simulated laparoscopic surgical performance: A pilot cohort study

Area of Science:

• Surgical Education
• Human Factors in Medicine
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Surgical performance can be impaired by stress experienced before or during procedures.
• Effective stress management is a critical non-technical skill for safe surgical practice.
• The impact of emotional visual stressors on surgical performance remains inadequately understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a model for investigating the effects of emotive visual stimuli on simulated laparoscopic performance.
• To assess the influence of different emotional stimuli on novice surgical skill acquisition.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 30 simulator-naïve medical students were allocated to view positive, negative, or neutral images.
• Participants performed a simulated laparoscopic peg-threading task after viewing stimuli.
• Performance metrics including time, instrument distance, speed, and motion smoothness were automatically tracked.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in final performance metrics were observed between groups exposed to negative, positive, or neutral stimuli.
• Overall participation in the task led to significant improvements in performance metrics.
• The rate of performance improvement showed complex patterns across different stimulus groups.

Conclusions:

• A model system can be valuable for studying the impact of stress on surgeon performance.
• The relationship between emotive visual stimuli and surgical performance is intricate.
• This model offers a platform for developing strategies to mitigate the negative effects of stressors on surgeons.