Desai Veeral, Stambulic Thomas, Grounds Robert, Lea Jane, Westerberg Brian D
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Division of Orthopedic Surgery, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
J Surg Educ. 2025 Jan;82(1):103336. doi: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2024.103336. Epub 2024 Nov 16.
Mental imagery is a dynamic mental state involving the cognitive visualization and rehearsal of motor movements or positions without overt motor output. Mental imagery is known to have numerous benefits for skill acquisition within athletic performance and is often incorporated into elite athletic training programs. The literature on the effects of mental imagery in surgery, which shares many of the high-performance qualities of elite athletics, remains limited. It may be possible to extrapolate many of the benefits of mental imagery on skill acquisition and sports performance in athletics to the field of surgery. The purpose of the study is to qualitatively assess the components of mental imagery approaches used in high-level athletics to ultimately determine their applicability to surgical training.
A scoping review was conducted using the Ovid Medline, Ovid EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Google Scholar databases. Two reviewers screened through all abstracts and full texts according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Checklist. A thematic analysis was then performed on all studies included in the review.
Of 1252 citations, 19 studies met full inclusion and exclusion criteria. Five themes were identified in the thematic analysis (open vs closed events; internal vs external imagery; level of expertise; visual vs kinesthetic; psychological effects and physical factors).
The use of mental imagery to enhance training and performance outside of medicine is widespread in the literature. Numerous studies have shown mental imagery can improve performance, decrease anxiety and shorten the learning curve in elite athletes. Surprisingly, the role of mental imagery within surgical training remains poorly explored. Given that the training undertaken by elite athletes and surgeons has many similarities, our scoping review and thematic analysis has identified 5 key areas for possible transferable practices whereby mental imagery could benefit surgical education.
心理意象是一种动态的心理状态，涉及对运动动作或姿势的认知可视化和演练，而无明显的运动输出。众所周知，心理意象对运动表现中的技能习得有诸多益处，并且常被纳入精英运动员训练计划。关于心理意象在手术中的作用的文献仍然有限，而手术与精英运动具有许多高性能特征。有可能将心理意象对运动技能习得和运动表现的诸多益处推广到外科领域。本研究的目的是定性评估高水平运动中使用的心理意象方法的组成部分，以最终确定其对外科训练的适用性。
使用Ovid Medline、Ovid EMBASE、Cochrane对照试验中心注册库和谷歌学术数据库进行范围综述。两名评审员根据预定义的纳入和排除标准，按照系统评价和Meta分析扩展的范围综述（PRISMA-ScR）清单筛选所有摘要和全文。然后对综述中纳入的所有研究进行主题分析。
在1252条引用文献中，19项研究符合完全纳入和排除标准。主题分析确定了五个主题（开放与封闭事件；内部与外部意象；专业水平；视觉与动觉；心理效应和身体因素）。
文献中广泛使用心理意象来提高医学之外的训练和表现。许多研究表明，心理意象可以提高精英运动员的表现、降低焦虑并缩短学习曲线。令人惊讶的是，心理意象在外科训练中的作用仍未得到充分探索。鉴于精英运动员和外科医生所接受的训练有许多相似之处，我们的范围综述和主题分析确定了五个关键领域，可能存在可转移的实践，心理意象可借此使外科教育受益。
