Brain activation measurement for motion gain decision of surgical endoscope manipulation

Background Robotic surgery improves minimally invasive interventions. However, it is challenging to determine the best gain settings for control of the endoscope. Providing the surgeon with the ability to manipulate the endoscope at an appropriate speed will likely improve the surgery by reducing the surgeon's stress. In this study, we validated the feasibility of a gain-tuning method in which the operator's brain activity is measured and used to evaluate stress levels. Methods We developed an endoscope-manipulation simulator and used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure the prefrontal cortical activity, while participants controlled the simulator at different gain values. Results The brain activation levels in the prefrontal cortex exhibited significant differences under different viewpoint motion gain conditions. Conclusions The stress-related brain activity was significantly reduced at specific gains, indicating that the brain activity evaluation would be useful to determine the parameters related to the operator's feelings.