People who received gentle electric currents on the back of their heads learned to maneuver a robotic surgery tool in virtual reality and then in a real setting much more easily than people who didn’t receive those nudges, a new study shows.
The findings offer the first glimpse of how stimulating a specific part of the brain called the cerebellum could help health care professionals take what they learn in virtual reality to real operating rooms, a much-needed transition in a field that increasingly relies on digital simulation training, said author and Johns Hopkins University roboticist Jeremy D. Brown.
“Training in virtual reality is not the same as training in a real setting, and we’ve shown with previous research that it can be difficult to transfer a skill learned in a simulation into the real world,” said Brown, the John C. Malone Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. “It’s very hard to claim statistical exactness, but we concluded people in the study were able to transfer skills from virtual reality to the real world much more easily when they had this stimulation.”
The work appears today in Nature Scientific Reports.
Participants drove a surgical needle through three small holes, first in a virtual simulation and then in a real scenario using the da Vinci Research Kit, an open-source research robot. The exercises mimicked moves needed during surgical procedures on organs in the belly, the researchers said.
Participants received a subtle flow of electricity through electrodes or small pads placed on their scalps meant to stimulate their brain’s cerebellum. While half the group received steady flows of electricity during the entire test, the rest of the participants received a brief stimulation only at the beginning and nothing at all for the rest of the tests.
People who received the steady currents showed a notable boost in dexterity. None of them had prior training in surgery or robotics.
“The group that didn’t receive stimulation struggled a bit more to apply the skills they learned in virtual reality to the actual robot, especially the most complex moves involving quick motions,” said Guido Caccianiga, a former Johns Hopkins roboticist, now at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, who designed and led the experiments. “The groups that received brain stimulation were better at those tasks.”
Noninvasive brain stimulation is a way to influence certain parts of the brain from outside the body, and scientists have shown how it can benefit motor learning in rehabilitation therapy, the researchers said. With their work, the team is taking the research to a new level by testing how stimulating the brain can help surgeons gain skills they might need in real-world situations, said co-author Gabriela Cantarero, a former assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins.
“It was really cool that we were actually able to influence behavior using this setup, where we could really quantify every little aspect of people’s movements, deviations, and errors,” Cantarero said.
Robotic surgery systems provide significant benefits for clinicians by enhancing human skill. They can help surgeons minimize hand tremors and perform fine and precise tasks with enhanced vision.
Besides influencing how surgeons of the future might learn new skills, this type of brain stimulation also offers promise for skill acquisition in other industries that rely on virtual reality training, particularly work in robotics.
Even outside of virtual reality, the stimulation can also likely help people learn more generally, the researchers said.
“What if we could show that with brain stimulation you can learn new skills in half the time?” Caccianiga said. “That’s a huge margin on the costs because you’d be training people faster; you could save a lot of resources to train more surgeons or engineers who will deal with these technologies frequently in the future.”
Other authors include Ronan A. Mooney of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Pablo A. Celnik of the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.
Watu waliopokea umeme wa polepole nyuma ya vichwa vyao walijifunza kuendesha kifaa cha upasuaji wa roboti katika hali halisi na kisha katika mazingira halisi kwa urahisi zaidi kuliko watu ambao hawakupokea nyongeza hizo, utafiti mpya unaonyesha. "Ugunduzi huu unatoa mwonekano wa kwanza wa jinsi kuchochea sehemu maalum ya ubongo inayoitwa cerebellum inaweza kusaidia wataalamu wa huduma za afya kuchukua kile wanachojifunza katika hali halisi ya kweli kwenye vyumba vya uendeshaji halisi, mabadiliko yanayohitajika sana katika uwanja ambao unategemea zaidi mafunzo ya simulation ya dijiti. """ "Mazoezi katika hali halisi si sawa na mafunzo katika mazingira halisi, na tumeonyesha na utafiti wa awali kwamba inaweza kuwa vigumu kuhamisha ujuzi kujifunza katika simulation katika ulimwengu wa kweli, "alisema Brown, John C. Malone Msaidizi Profesa wa Uhandisi wa Mashine." "Ni vigumu sana kudai usahihi wa takwimu, lakini tulifikia mkataa kwamba watu katika utafiti waliweza kuhamisha ujuzi kutoka kwa hali halisi ya kweli hadi ulimwengu halisi kwa urahisi zaidi wakati walikuwa na kichocheo hiki. "" Kazi hiyo inaonekana leo katika Ripoti za Sayansi za Asili." Washiriki waliendesha sindano ya upasuaji kupitia mashimo matatu madogo, kwanza katika simulation ya virtual na kisha katika hali halisi kwa kutumia da Vinci Research Kit, robot ya utafiti ya chanzo wazi. Watafiti hao walisema kwamba mazoezi hayo yalifanana na hatua zinazohitajiwa wakati wa upasuaji wa viungo vya tumbo. Washiriki walipokea mtiririko mdogo wa umeme kupitia electrodes au pads ndogo zilizowekwa kwenye scalps zao zilizokusudiwa kuchochea cerebellum ya ubongo wao. Wakati nusu ya kikundi hicho walipokea mtiririko wa umeme wa kudumu wakati wa mtihani mzima, washiriki wengine walipokea kichocheo kifupi tu mwanzoni na hakuna chochote kwa vipindi vingine vya mtihani. Watu waliopokea mikondo ya maji yenye uthabiti walionyesha ongezeko kubwa la ustadi. Hakuna yeyote kati yao aliyekuwa amezoezwa upasuaji au roboti. "Kikundi ambacho hakipokea kichocheo kilijitahidi zaidi kutumia ujuzi walioujifunza katika hali halisi ya kweli kwa roboti halisi, haswa harakati ngumu zaidi zinazohusisha harakati za haraka, ""alisema Guido Caccianiga, mtaalamu wa zamani wa roboti wa Johns Hopkins, sasa katika Taasisi ya Max Planck ya Mifumo ya Akili, ambaye alibuni na kuongoza majaribio hayo." "Kundi zilizopokea kichocheo cha ubongo zilikuwa bora katika kazi hizo. ""Kichocheo cha ubongo kisicho cha uvamizi ni njia ya kuathiri sehemu fulani za ubongo kutoka nje ya mwili, na wanasayansi wameonyesha jinsi inaweza kufaidika na kujifunza kwa magari katika tiba ya ukarabati. """ """Timu ya wataalamu wa upasuaji wa kisayansi inachukua utafiti kwa kiwango kipya kwa kupima jinsi kuchochea ubongo kunaweza kusaidia madaktari kupata ujuzi ambao wanaweza kuhitaji katika hali halisi,"" alisema Gabriela Cantarello, profesa msaidizi wa zamani wa tiba ya kimwili na ukarabati katika Chuo Kikuu cha Johns Hopkins." "Ilikuwa nzuri sana kwamba tulikuwa na uwezo wa kuathiri tabia kwa kutumia mfumo huu, ambapo tunaweza kweli kuhesabu kila kipengele kidogo cha harakati za watu, kupotoka, na makosa", Cantarero alisema. Mifumo ya upasuaji wa roboti hutoa faida kubwa kwa madaktari kwa kuboresha ustadi wa kibinadamu. Zinaweza kuwasaidia madaktari wa upasuaji kupunguza kutetemeka kwa mikono na kufanya kazi nzuri na sahihi wakiwa na uwezo mkubwa wa kuona. Mbali na kuathiri jinsi madaktari wa baadaye wanaweza kujifunza ujuzi mpya, aina hii ya uchochezi wa ubongo pia inatoa ahadi ya upatikanaji wa ujuzi katika viwanda vingine ambavyo hutegemea mafunzo ya hali halisi, hasa kazi katika roboti. Hata nje ya hali halisi, kuchochea pia kunaweza kusaidia watu kujifunza kwa ujumla, watafiti walisema. "Ilikuwaje ikiwa tungeweza kuonyesha kwamba kwa kuchochea ubongo unaweza kujifunza ujuzi mpya kwa nusu ya muda?"" alisema Caccianiga. "Hiyo ni kiasi kikubwa cha gharama kwa sababu ungeweza kuwa mafunzo ya watu haraka; unaweza kuokoa rasilimali nyingi kwa mafunzo ya madaktari wa upasuaji zaidi au wahandisi ambao kushughulika na teknolojia hizi mara kwa mara katika siku zijazo. ""Wandishi wengine ni pamoja na Ronan A. Mooney wa Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine na Pablo A. Celnik wa Shirley Ryan Ability Lab."