The Effect of Different Auditory Stimuli on Laparoscopic Skill Acquisition

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONLiterature suggests that listening to music decreases the time required for a surgeon to perform surgical skills, and improves their overall performance. However, little is known about how the surgeon's preference or response to that particular music affects the rate at which they learn a novel skill. The primary goal of this study is to explore how different auditory conditions impact the rate of acquisition of an introductory surgical skill, the intracorporeal knot.METHODSParticipants will be naïve to surgical skills (medical students), and prescreened for demographics, history of musical experiences, and their use of music as a study aid. A cognitive pre‐test will be employed to assess baseline participant performance with, and without the presence of music. This will serve to stratify individuals into two groups: those whose performance thrives, or declines, in the presence of music. An equal proportion of individuals from each group will be randomly assigned to one of four auditory training conditions: participant‐preferred music, randomized music, ambient noise, and silence. Participants will watch an instructional video on the technique of the intracorporeal knot and will have 80 minutes to practice the task to proficiency. Proficiency is defined in the literature by the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery as a maximum of 112 seconds with no knots occurring outside of 1mm. Learning curves will be analyzed to determine the rate of acquisition for each group.ANTICIPATED RESULTSWe anticipate that participants will master the intracorporeal knot tying task fastest under the preferred music condition, and slowest in the randomized music condition.CONCLUSIONWhen the music is reflective of the surgeon's personal taste, it could be beneficial for the acquisition of new surgical skills. However, non‐preferred music could negatively impact skill acquisition and would suggest that minimizing of the use of music in operating rooms when residents are present would generate a more efficient learning environment.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.