Decreasing the Surgical Errors by Neurostimulation of Primary Motor Cortex and the Associated Brain Activation via Neuroimaging

Acquisition of fine motor skills is a time-consuming process as it based on learning via frequent repetitions. Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) promising means enhancing simple skill development neuromodulatory mechanisms. Here, we report that non-invasive neurostimulation facilitates the complex bimanual associated with surgical task. During training 12 medical students Fundamentals Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) pattern cutting task over period days, observed transcranial direct current (tDCS) decreased error level and variability in performance, compared to Sham group. Furthermore, by concurrently monitoring cortical activations subjects functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), our study showed activation patterns were significantly different between tDCS group, primary cortex (M1) prefrontal (PFC) contralateral anodal electrode while supplemental area (SMA) increased tDCS. The lowered performance errors retained after 1-month post-training. This work supports use enhance accuracy tasks.