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Thinking Makes It So: Relationship Between Cortical Activity During Mental Imagery and Surgical Skill
Nicholas E Anton1, Meredith C Ziliak2, Christopher M Thomas1
1Department of Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to assess the association of mental imagery ability with open suturing performance objectively.
Design:
Participants completed a robust mental imagery assessment battery, mental imagery of simple interrupted suturing while verbalizing each step and having cortical activity measured with an electroencephalogram (EEG), and 2 physical repetitions of simple interrupted suturing. Correlation tests were run to determine relationships among variables.
Setting:
The study took place at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Participants:
Surgical novices with no prior surgical experience voluntarily participated in this study.
Results:
No significant correlations were found between subjective MI assessments and suturing performance. However, higher cortical activity in the prefrontal and premotor cortices during mental imagery of suturing was associated with higher performance during the suturing task (all R > 0.5, p < 0.05).
Conclusions:
Cortical activity during imagery of open suturing was associated with better actual suturing performance. No self-report imagery assessments were associated with suturing performance, which indicates that EEG may be a more sensitive measure of imagery.
