Understanding neurophobia: Reasons behind impaired understanding and learning of neuroanatomy in cross‐disciplinary healthcare students

Abstract

Recent studies have highlighted a fear or difficulty with the study and understanding of neuroanatomy among medical and healthcare students. This has been linked with a diminished confidence of clinical practitioners and students to manage patients with neurological conditions. The underlying reasons for this difficulty have been queried among a broad cohort of medical, dental, occupational therapy, and speech and language sciences students. Direct evidence of the students' perception regarding specific difficulties associated with learning neuroanatomy has been provided and some of the measures required to address these issues have been identified. Neuroanatomy is perceived as a more difficult subject compared to other anatomy topics (e.g., reproductive/pelvic anatomy) and not all components of the neuroanatomy curriculum are viewed as equally challenging. The difficulty in understanding neuroanatomical concepts is linked to intrinsic factors such as the inherent complex nature of the topic rather than outside influences (e.g., lecture duration). Participants reporting high levels of interest in the subject reported higher levels of knowledge, suggesting that teaching tools aimed at increasing interest, such as case-based scenarios, could facilitate acquisition of knowledge. Newer pedagogies, including web-resources and computer assisted learning (CAL) are considered important tools to improve neuroanatomy learning, whereas traditional tools such as lecture slides and notes were considered less important. In conclusion, it is suggested that understanding of neuroanatomy could be enhanced and neurophobia be decreased by purposefully designed CAL resources. This data could help curricular designers to refocus attention and guide educators to develop improved neuroanatomy web-resources in future. Anat Sci Educ 11: 81-93. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.

Identifying Medical Student Perceptions on the Difficulty of Learning Different Topics of the Undergraduate Anatomy Curriculum

“…Head and neck, and pelvic anatomy are reported as more difficult than other subjects by both NUNC and general medical students which is consistent with the previous study by Javaid et al [6] The observation that NUNC students still find these hard whilst they do not struggle with neuroanatomy suggests that perceptions on these subjects could be altered if they approached head and neck or pelvic anatomy in the same way as they do in neuroanatomy. Educational changes to how these subjects are approached by medical students may allow the loss of fear towards neuroanatomy to be mirrored in head and neck and pelvic anatomy.…”

“…The results presented here build on the previous work of Kramer and Soley [5] and Javaid et al [6] with an expansion to cover student opinions of the entire curriculum and further probe into perceptions of learning neuroanatomy. The medical students at the University of Southampton rate neuroanatomy, head and neck, and pelvic anatomy to be significantly harder than the rest of the subjects (Fig.…”

“…Educational changes to how these subjects are approached by medical students may allow the loss of fear towards neuroanatomy to be mirrored in head and neck and pelvic anatomy. Javaid et al have suggested changes such as case-based teaching and online resources may help engage students in neuroanatomy [6].…”

“…This study highlighted that neuroanatomy and pelvic anatomy were of particular difficulty to their students; however, it did not evaluate student perceptions on the whole curriculum [5]. Javaid et al [6] have recently published student ratings on the whole curriculum and neuroanatomy was again rated as the most difficult subject.…”

Evaluation of Neuroanatomy Web Resources for Undergraduate Education: Educators’ and Students’ Perspectives

“…Its prevalence has been reported globally, in countries including Ireland and the United Kingdom (Flanagan et al, ; McCarron et al, ; Pakpoor et al, ; Conway and Tubridy, ), the United States (Zinchuk et al, ; Mullally, ), Caribbean countries (Youssef, ), Nigeria (Sanya et al, ), Sri Lanka (Matthias et al, ), and Portugal (Arantes et al, ). In this context, studies have shown that the perception of neuroanatomy as a difficult subject is a significant contributor to the problem (Martin et al, ; Javaid et al, ). A recent survey has shown that medical and health sciences students rank the innate complexity of the topic, a lack of understanding of the clinical relevance of basic neuroanatomical facts, and the difficult visualization of the three‐dimensional inter‐relationship of neuroanatomical structures as the main reasons for their difficulty with neuroanatomy (Javaid et al, ).…”