Assessing motor and cognitive function pre and post propofol only anaesthesia for endoscopic procedures.

Patients receiving propofol only anaesthesia for endoscopic procedures are administered two computer programs called the "self ordered pointing test" (SOPT) and the "sustained attention to response task" (SART). These tests were administered 30 minutes prior to the patients procedure and again, 1 hour post emergence from the patients procedure and patients were observed for an estimated 1.5 hours in total from the first to last assessment. In the SOPT test, the participant is presented number of images and she/he is asked to pick one. On the next screen the order of the images is scrambled and the subject is asked to pick a different image amongst the number of images which were presented to a participant on the previous screen. This repeats until all images are selected. This test measures working memory, verbal learning, visuospatial ability, and select aspects of executive functioning. The SART test is a computer-based task designed to measure a person's ability to withhold responses to infrequent and unpredictable stimuli during a period of rapid and rhythmic responding to frequent stimuli. The participant was flashed a sequence of disordered numbers between 1-9 and was asked to press the space bar in response to being flashed the number 3. The SART and SOPT have been studied heavily in the past with subjects exposed to alcohol and validated to a BAL of <0.05.