Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 6, 2026
Quantifying Cognitive Decrements Caused by Cranial Radiotherapy
Published on: October 18, 2011
Neurocognitive Mechanism of Perceptual Errors in Radiologists: Results of Pilot Studies
Michael A Bruno1,2, Elizabeth A Krupinski3, Scott C Bunce1,2
1Department of Radiology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State Health, Hershey, PA, USA.
Background:
The most prevalent type of radiologist error is failing to detect abnormalities on images, the so-called "perceptual error." The prevalence of this type of false-negative (FN) error remains essentially unchanged since it was first described in 1949. Reducing this error rate would be highly beneficial for patients who often depend on radiological observations for a timely diagnosis.
Purpose:
To identify a potential neurocognitive mechanism contributing to radiologists' perceptual errors, in order to inform intervention strategies to reduce such errors in practice. These experiments evaluated the relationship between brain network activation states and radiologists' perceptual errors on two distinct visual tasks utilizing functional MRI (fMRI) and functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS).
Materials And Methods:
A prospective, pilot study was carried out on a small number of radiologist participants utilizing two distinct types of visual tasks while monitoring activity in two targeted brain networks, the default mode network (DMN) and the "executive" frontoparietal network (FPN), to test the hypothesis that simultaneous co-activation of these networks produces an error-prone neurocognitive state (EPS). A third experiment using fNIRS alone was an observational study of subjects' neurocognitive states during their usual practice to determine the baseline prevalence of the EPS in the clinical setting.
Results:
An approximately threefold increased risk of FN perceptual errors (misses) on the visual tasks was observed in the presence of simultaneous co-activation of elements of the Default Mode Network (DMN) and Frontoparietal Network (FPN), which supports the "error-prone state" (EPS) hypothesis. EPS prevalence declined with participant age.
Conclusion:
Our results suggest that dynamic interactions between the Default Mode Network (DMN) and Frontoparietal Network (FPN) create a unique error-prone state (EPS), associated with an approximately threefold increased risk of perceptual error in radiologists. These results suggest potential intervention strategies for perceptual error, the largest class of radiologist errors in practice.
