Language Testing During Awake Brain Surgery

Learn how to develop language tests for awake brain surgery

Language representation in the brain can be studied by testing language during awake brain surgery. In this course, you will get to know the importance of neurolinguistics and awake brain surgery by seeing the collaboration between surgical staff and neurolinguists before, during and after the operation.

You will also learn how to develop appropriate language tests for use during awake brain surgery and explore some of the latest developments in this field.

The course has been created for healthcare professionals involved in the procedure of awake surgery, including neurosurgeons and neurosurgical teams but also neurolinguists and clinical linguists who wish to start developing language tests.

Equally, it will be relevant for anyone involved in the procedure before, during and after awake brain surgery including neuro-anaesthesiologists, neuropsychologists, nursing staff and neurologists.

It also delivers useful information for patients with brain tumours and their proxies, to inform them about the surgical procedure they are about to undergo as well as anyone else intrigued by the topic.

• Language representation in the brain
• Let's get started!
• Neuroanatomy of language
• Language and what can go wrong
• Wrapping up Week 1
• Brain tumours and awake surgery
• Exploring the preoperative phase
• Assessing tumour types
• Eligibility for surgery
• Making the decision
• Wrapping up Week 2
• The procedure of awake surgery
• The hours before the surgery
• The first asleep phase
• Intraoperative mapping and decision making
• The second asleep phase and its pitfalls
• Wrapping up Week 3
• The importance of tailor-made language tests
• Clinical linguists in the OR
• The complex language map in the brain
• Spontaneous speech testing
• Developing tailor-made language tests
• Wrapping up Week 4 with designing our own tests
• Language testing during awake brain surgery
• The variety of tests
• How to select tests
• Evaluating the outcome
• Applying our tests
• Latest developments
• Wrapping up the test developments
• The alternative to intraoperative mapping
• Beyond language mapping
• Wrapping up our course