Teaching Anatomy to Neuroscientific Health-Care Professionals: Are They Receiving the Best Anatomical Education?

Abstract

University neuroanatomical courses seldom teach the anatomical-functional connectivity of the brain. White matter dissection improves understanding of brain connectivity, but until now has been restricted to neurosurgeons and in some cases to medical students, never to health-care non-medical professionals. Our aim was to teach white matter anatomy to medical and non-medical students to evaluate this technique in groups with different education. A standardized lab demonstration of white matter anatomy was performed with high appreciation rate in both groups, suggesting a suboptimal neuroanatomical education provided by basic course. We encourage to include this technique of teaching brain anatomy into basic neuroanatomical courses to improve the level of comprehension and competence in all health-care staff within the field of neuroscience.

Design and development of MemoryTrail virtual reality game to study brain and memory processes in a fun and interactive manner

“…In biology, lecturing has been reported to promote memorization of facts rather than fostering deep understanding in most students, and even high academic achievers sometimes gain little understanding of basic biology concepts via traditional lectures (Sundberg, 2002). To overcome these limitations, studies have emerged that investigate the efficacy of using digital teaching tools such as virtual reality (VR) for the visual appreciation of anatomy (Abdullah et al, 2021;Codd & Choudhury, 2011;Latini & Ryttlefors, 2020;Singh et al, 2019). VR enables interactions in a 3D environment that makes the learning experience immersive and relatable as compared to 2D alternatives (Dick, 2021), allows students to be more engaged with the content (Bonasio, 2019), and enhances retention of knowledge (Ekstrand et al, 2018).…”