Prefrontal transcranial direct-current stimulation improves early technical skills in surgery

Studies applying transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) to motor regions to enhance surgical skills have observed modest benefits in performance. Early surgical skills acquisition is known to be dependent on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which could be a suitable target for performance enhance...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Brain stimulation 2020-11, Vol.13 (6), p.1834-1841
Hauptverfasser: Ashcroft, James, Patel, Ronak, Woods, Adam J., Darzi, Ara, Singh, Harsimrat, Leff, Daniel R.
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Studies applying transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) to motor regions to enhance surgical skills have observed modest benefits in performance. Early surgical skills acquisition is known to be dependent on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which could be a suitable target for performance enhancement in fields with high cognitive demand. To assess whether prefrontal tDCS could improve early phases of surgical skill development. In a randomized sham-controlled double-blind parallel design, 40 surgical novices performed an open knot-tying task repeated in three blocks; pre-, online- and post-tDCS. During online stimulation, participants were randomized to either active tDCS (2 mA for 15 min) to the prefrontal cortex (anode over F3, cathode over F4) or sham tDCS. Performance score (PS) was computed using a validated algorithm and introspective workload domains were assessed using a SURG-TLX questionnaire. There was no difference in demographics or PS between groups prior to receiving tDCS. PS significantly improved from pre-to online- (p 
ISSN:1935-861X
1876-4754
DOI:10.1016/j.brs.2020.10.013