Effect of fatigue on the brain activity of radiologists while reading images

Reading fatigue in radiologists while assessing diagnostic images reduces their performance and increases errors in image interpretation. Such errors impact patient morbidity and mortality rates as diagnostic imaging plays a crucial role in patient management. We conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of experienced and less-experienced radiologists reading images, both before and after fatigue induction, and assessed their brain activity in both states. Computed tomography (CT) images were presented to seven experienced and six less-experienced radiologists. Pre-fatigue, the radiologists underwent fMRI while reading head CT images; subsequently, they interpreted different CT images for 1 hour outside the MRI suite. Then, in the fatigued state, all 13 radiologists underwent fMRI scanning again while reading a different set of images. During the pre-fatigue reading of head CT images, the bilateral lingual gyri and posterior lobes of the cerebellum were activated in the experienced radiologists but not significantly activated in the less-experienced radiologists. No region was significantly activated in either group of fatigued radiologists. We concluded that the bilateral lingual gyri and posterior lobes of the cerebellum have important roles in image-reading tasks, suggesting the possibility of identifying brain regions involved in specific professional skills. The results indicated that fatigue resulted in reduced brain activation, underscoring the serious effect of excessive work on the brain activation of diagnostic radiologists.