Syllabus

• Week 1

  Language representation in the brain

  • Let's get started!

    Let's start this course off together by getting to know our main educator, the clinical educators at the hospital and the topic in the center of this course - the brain!

  • Neuroanatomy of language

    Before we dig deeper into language mapping, let's get acquainted with the most crucial anatomical terms you will need throughout the course in the following steps.

  • Language and what can go wrong

    Now that you have warmed up with the anatomy of the brain, we will find out which areas are assumed to be responsible for language and what consequences a damage to those areas has.

  • Wrapping up Week 1

    It is now time to check how much you recall from this week's steps and look ahead to Week 2.

• Week 2

  Brain tumours and awake surgery

  • Exploring the preoperative phase

    Let's have a look at what this week on the preoperative preparations will teach us and meet the neurosurgeon guiding you through it.

  • Assessing tumour types

    After a patient is admitted to the hospital, we will see now which steps he goes through next and which classifications for tumour diagnoses there are.

  • Eligibility for surgery

    Apart from the type of tumour, let us discuss which other criteria a patient has to meet to qualify for an awake brain surgery and if our patient meets them.

  • Making the decision

    Even if it is based on all the medical assessments and obtained results, the decision to operate or not is not always as straight forward as one might think. Let's explore the difficulty and solutions of this.

  • Wrapping up Week 2

    It is time to test what you have learned about preoperative assessment in Week 2 and look ahead to Week 3.

• Week 3

  The procedure of awake surgery

  • The hours before the surgery

    Before we discuss the intraoperative procedure in detail, let us look at the last preparations and checklists for the patient and the surgical team.

  • The first asleep phase

    In the first phase, the patient is held asleep under anesthesia to position him for the awake phase. Here the anesthesiologist will talk us through these steps.

  • Intraoperative mapping and decision making

    In the following step, we get to watch the intraoperative mapping and the processes of deciding whether or not to resect, explained by the neurosurgeon.

  • The second asleep phase and its pitfalls

    Now that the mapping is over, the patient needs to be closed up and woken up safely. The anesthesiologist and neurophysiologist talk you through these procedures and their complications.

  • Wrapping up Week 3

    It's time to test what you have learned in the intraoperative Week 3 and to think beyond the tasks described so far.

• Week 4

  The importance of tailor-made language tests

  • Clinical linguists in the OR

    After being introduced to the medical side of an awake brain surgery, let us get involved with clinical linguistics now.

  • The complex language map in the brain

    Let us build on what we have already learned about language areas in the brain by adding the knowledge how different areas are involved in different subtasks of language.

  • Spontaneous speech testing

    In our every day conversations, we do not perform language tasks, but use spontaneous speech. Why would we not just use that for language mapping?

  • Developing tailor-made language tests

    Now that you know why using spontaneous speech as measure of language skills is not enough, let us get behind the necessary steps of developing a useful language test.

  • Wrapping up Week 4 with designing our own tests

    Now it is time for you to put words into action. Start developing your own little test for LTABS with the following instructions.

• Week 5

  Language testing during awake brain surgery

  • The variety of tests

    Find out about the variety of language tests to choose from in the following step.

  • How to select tests

    Applying every possible test on a single patient would not be reasonable. Let us find out how a selection of tests is made per patient.

  • Evaluating the outcome

    If we want to evaluate whether it was a successful surgery, we assess the post-operative state of the patient. Here we have a look at how the patient is doing shortly after and what conclusion to draw from this.

  • Applying our tests

    Let's go back to the small test you developed last week. This week, we will take it one step further by piloting it.

• Week 6

  Latest developments

  • Wrapping up the test developments

    Last week, you tried out your test as a pilot to investigate its validity and had your peers evaluate the results with you. We will look at this last stage of test development once more.

  • The alternative to intraoperative mapping

    We will get to know now how mapping can be done with a preoperative procedure, called nTMS, and how we can profit from it.

  • Beyond language mapping

    You have been introduced to the language mapping procedures at the University Medical Centre Groningen. However, it is good to widen one's horizon to learning about how other centres approach the procedure.

  • Wrapping up our course

    Let us check one last time how much we remember from this Week's steps, before we leave you with some additional information concerning LTABS courses and warm fare-well.

Who will you learn with?