A study from Johns Hopkins University shows that applying a mild electrical current to the cerebellum improves an individual's ability to transfer skills from virtual reality to a real-world environment, particularly during robotic surgery. This technology could revolutionize training methods in a variety of high-tech industries, including medicine and robotics.
Johns Hopkins University researchers have found that mild electrical stimulation of the cerebellum greatly improves the transfer of virtual reality training to real-world tasks in robotic surgery, heralding potential advances in medical and technical training methods.
People who received mild electrical stimulation to the back of their heads learned to manipulate robotic surgical tools in virtual reality and then in the real world more easily than those who did not receive these stimulations, a new study shows.
The findings show for the first time how stimulating a specific part of the brain called the cerebellum can help health care workers apply what they learn in virtual reality to the real operating room, a much-needed transition in a field that increasingly relies on digital simulations for training, said study author Jeremy D. Brown, a roboticist at Johns Hopkins University.
"Training in virtual reality is different than training in the real environment, and our previous research has shown that it is difficult to transfer skills learned in simulations to the real world," said Brown, the John C. Malone Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. "It's hard to say the statistical results are accurate, but we concluded that the people in the study were able to transfer skills from virtual reality to the real world more easily when exposed to this kind of stimulation."
The research results were published today (December 20) in Nature Scientific Reports.
Participants first inserted a surgical needle through three small holes in a virtual simulation and then practiced in a real-life scenario using the da Vinci Research Kit, an open-source research robot. The researchers say the exercises mimic the movements required during surgery on abdominal organs.
Participants receive a weak electrical current through electrodes or small pads on their scalp to stimulate the cerebellum of the brain. Half of the participants received a steady current throughout the test, while the remainder received only a brief stimulation at the beginning of the test and no stimulation at all for the remainder of the test.
People who received steady electrical stimulation experienced significantly improved dexterity. None of them had previous training in surgery or robotics.
"The group that didn't receive stimulation had some difficulty applying the skills they learned in virtual reality to actual robots, especially the most complex movements involving fast movements," said Guido Caccianiga, a former Johns Hopkins University robotics expert now at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. "The group that received brain stimulation performed better on these tasks."
Non-invasive brain stimulation, a method of influencing certain parts of the brain from outside the body, has been shown by scientists to benefit motor learning in rehabilitation treatments, the researchers said. With their work, the team has taken research to the next level by testing how stimulating the brain can help surgeons gain skills they may need in the real world, said study co-author Gabriela Cantarero, a former Johns Hopkins assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation.
"We can actually influence behavior with this device," Cantarero said. "We can really quantify every little aspect of people's movements, deviations and mistakes."
Robotic surgical systems provide tremendous benefits to clinicians by enhancing human skills. They help surgeons minimize hand tremors and perform fine and precise tasks with enhanced vision.
In addition to impacting how future surgeons learn new skills, this type of brain stimulation holds promise for skill learning in other industries that rely on VR training, particularly the robotics industry.
Even outside of virtual reality, such stimulation has the potential to help people learn more generally, the researchers say.
"What if we could show that, through brain stimulation, you can learn a new skill in half the time?" Casianiga said. "That's a huge cost margin because you can train people faster; you save a lot of resources to train more surgeons or engineers who will be working with these technologies regularly in the future."
Compiled from: ScitechDaily