Background: The number of medical undergraduate students in Chinese college classes ranges from dozens to over 100. As a result, the interaction between teacher and students is difficult to conduct. Student attendance and participation need to be improved. Methods: Two classes of fourth-year undergraduate medical students, with each class comprising 115 students, participated in the study. One class was the trial group taught by the block-based teaching method based on cybernetics. This study was conducted with three of the courses in the Introduction to Oncology. The course of the trial group included several blocks. Each block had a test paper, which was answered immediately by students in class using the Internet. The teacher received feedback from the students when the correct rate of response was less than 90%. The teacher adjusted the teaching in the following blocks according to feedback information. The other class was the control group being taught with the traditional lecture-based teaching method. Results: The average number of attendees in the trial group was 104/115 (90.43%) and that in the control group was 83/115 (72.17%) (p=0.0003). The teacher adjusted teaching three times in the radiotherapy course due to the difficulty of knowledge. Feedback and adjustment of the upper body of chemotherapy was once and the lower body of chemotherapy was once due to the students’ attitudes to the class. The average total score of the trial group was 86.06 ± 7.46 and that of the control group was 80.38 ± 6.97 (p=0.041). Questionnaire I showed that the trial group students’ attendance and participation was better than the control group. Questionnaire II showed that the block-based teaching method based on cybernetics was approved by the students. Conclusions: The block-based teaching method based on cybernetics had good effects in medical classes with large number of Chinese undergraduates.

Enhanced cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex (CSAR) contributes to ventricular arrhythmia (VA) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, central regulation mechanisms remain unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate whether local cardiac sympathetic afferent ablation (LCSAA) could reduce VA by inhibiting activated astrocytes in the hypothalamus paraventricular (PVN) in an AMI rat model. The rats were randomly divided into AMI, AMI + BD (baroreceptor denervation), AMI + LCSAA and AMI + BD+ LCSAA groups. Before the generation of AMI, BD and (or) LCSAA were performed. At 24 h after AMI, the incidence and duration of VA in AMI + LCSAA group and AMI + BD + LCSAA group were significantly reduced than AMI group ( P < 0.05 ). Furthermore, LCSAA significantly reduced GFAP (a marker for activated astrocytes) positive cells and their projections as well as the level of TNF‐α and IL‐6 in the PVN of AMI + LCSAA group and AMI + BD+ LCSAA group, along with the decrease of neuronal activation in PVN and sympathetic nerve activity ( P < 0.05 ). but BD had no obvious difference between AMI + LCSAA and AMI + BD + LCSAA group ( P > 0.05 ). Therefore, LCSAA could decrease sympathoexcitation and VA occurrence in AMI rats by inhibiting astrocyte and neuronal activation in the PVN. Our study demonstrates that activated astrocytes may play an important role on CSAR in AMI.