Neurophysiology of Everyday Life Group, Department of Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
Pius-Hospital Oldenburg, University Hospital for Visceral Surgery, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2024 Oct 14;14(1):24026. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-74946-9.
Surgical personnel face various stressors in the workplace, including environmental sounds. Mobile electroencephalography (EEG) offers a promising approach for objectively measuring how individuals perceive sounds. Because surgical performance does not necessarily decrease with higher levels of distraction, EEG could help guide noise reduction strategies that are independent of performance measures. In this study, we utilized mobile EEG to explore how a realistic soundscape is perceived during simulated laparoscopic surgery. To examine the varying demands placed on personnel in different situations, we manipulated the cognitive demand during the surgical task, using a memory task. To assess responses to the soundscape, we calculated event-related potentials for distinct sound events and temporal response functions for the ongoing soundscape. Although participants reported varying degrees of demand under different conditions, no significant effects were observed on surgical task performance or EEG parameters. However, changes in surgical task performance and EEG parameters over time were noted, while subjective results remained consistent over time. These findings highlight the importance of using multiple measures to fully understand the complex relationship between sound processing and cognitive demand. Furthermore, in the context of combined EEG and audio recordings in real-life scenarios, a sparse representation of the soundscape has the advantage that it can be recorded in a data-protected way compared to more detailed representations. However, it is unclear whether information get lost with sparse representations. Our results indicate that sparse and detailed representations are equally effective in eliciting neural responses. Overall, this study marks a significant step towards objectively investigating sound processing in applied settings.
外科医务人员在工作场所面临着各种压力源，包括环境声音。移动脑电图 (EEG) 为客观测量个体对声音的感知提供了一种有前途的方法。由于手术表现不一定随着干扰水平的增加而降低，因此 EEG 可以帮助指导独立于绩效措施的降噪策略。在这项研究中，我们利用移动 EEG 来探索在模拟腹腔镜手术期间如何感知逼真的声音环境。为了研究不同情况下人员的不同需求，我们在手术任务期间通过记忆任务来操纵认知需求。为了评估对声音环境的反应，我们为不同的声音事件计算了事件相关电位，为正在进行的声音环境计算了时间响应函数。尽管参与者在不同条件下报告了不同程度的需求，但在手术任务表现或 EEG 参数方面没有观察到显著影响。然而，随着时间的推移，手术任务表现和 EEG 参数发生了变化，而主观结果随着时间的推移保持一致。这些发现强调了使用多种措施来全面理解声音处理和认知需求之间复杂关系的重要性。此外，在真实场景中结合 EEG 和音频记录的情况下，稀疏表示声音环境的优点是它可以以受保护的数据方式进行记录，而不是更详细的表示。然而，尚不清楚稀疏表示是否会丢失信息。我们的结果表明，稀疏和详细的表示在引发神经反应方面同样有效。总的来说，这项研究标志着在应用环境中客观研究声音处理的重要一步。
