There are differences in the way infants learn, perceive, and understand the environment as compared to adults (Bornstein, 1989; Nelson, 2000; Craik and Bialystok, 2006). While an adult has an established, clear perception of his environment, infants are still forming perceptions of the world (Hall et al., 1989; Holt, 1991; Zitelli and Davis, 2007). The mechanisms underlying these differences a...

Novel experience and learning new skills are known as modulators of brain function. Advances in non-invasive brain imaging have provided new insight into structural and functional reorganization associated with skill learning and expertise. Especially, significant imaging evidences come from the domains of sports and music. Data from in vivo imaging studies in sports and music have provided vit...

Surgical robotic systems and virtual reality simulators have introduced an unprecedented precision of measurement for both tool-tissue and tool-surgeon interaction; thus holding promise for more objective analyses of surgical skill. Integrative or averaged metrics such as path length, time-to-task, success/failure percentages, etc., have often been employed towards this end but these fail to ad...

Synchronized action is considered as a manifestation of shared skill. Most synchronized behaviors in humans and other animals are based on periodic repetition. Aperiodic synchronization of complex action is found in the experimental task of synchronous speaking, in which naive subjects read a common text in lock step. The demonstration of synchronized behavior without a periodic basis is presen...

Evaluating surgeon skill has predominantly been a subjective task. Development of objective methods for surgical skill assessment are of increased interest. Recently, with technological advances such as robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS), new opportunities for objective and automated assessment frameworks have arisen. In this paper, we applied machine learning methods to automat...

Laparoscopic surgery is gaining popularity among the surgical community. While its prevalence expands, the need for reliable training and assessment tools is becoming increasingly important. Laparoscopic skills are not an innate behavior, nor can they be easily mimicked, and can only be acquired through hands-on training. A consensus exists among physicians that establishment and evaluation of ...

OBJECTIVE Evaluation of the laparoscopic surgical skills of surgical residents is usually a subjective process carried out in the operating room by senior surgeons. The two hypotheses of the current study were: (1) haptic information and tool/tissue interactions (types and transitions) performed in laparoscopic surgery are skill-dependent, and (2) statistical models (Hidden Markov Models--HMMs)...

BACKGROUND Providing basic surgical and emergency care in rural settings is essential, particularly in Tanzania, where the mortality burden addressable by emergency and surgical interventions has been estimated at 40%. However, the shortages of teaching faculty and insufficient learning resources have hampered the traditionally intensive surgical training apprenticeships. The Muhimbili Universi...

1 Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University * 2 Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University * 3 Graduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology ** 4 Department of Medical Informatics, Kyoto University Hospital * * Kyoto Univ. Hospital, 54 Shogoin Kawahara-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan {mikko, ykuroda, kume, tkuroda, lob}@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp ** 89...