Advances in Physiology Education最新文献

Physiology core concepts (CCs) are essential for understanding physiology and enhancing students' learning outcomes, but their impact in flipped learning (FL) settings remains unclear. This study evaluated whether integrating CCs into FL improves medical students' performance in a 3-wk cardiovascular physiology module. Third-year medical students were divided into two groups: a control group receiving standard FL (n = 85) and an experimental group receiving FL+CCs (n = 90). Performance was assessed via a formative quiz (30-35% participation rate) to identify early learning trends and a final exam. Quiz results were compared by the Mann-Whitney U test, and final exam responses were analyzed with chi-square tests. Students' perceptions were collected via questionnaires. The FL+CCs group had a higher median quiz score (68.75%) than the FL group (62.50%), but the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.14). On the final exam, the FL+CCs group had significantly more correct responses (695/900 vs. 609/850; 77.2% vs. 71.6%; P = 0.008), driven primarily by improved performance on the homeostasis questions (56.7% vs. 40%; P = 0.003). In addition, 60% of students in the FL+CCs group reported that the FL+CCs approach enhanced their understanding of cardiovascular physiology. Integrating CCs into FL was associated with improved medical student performance in cardiovascular physiology, primarily due to better performance on the homeostasis CC. Studies with a broader assessment scope and extended implementation periods are needed to further evaluate educational benefits of the FL+CCs approach.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study is among the first to investigate core concept-based teaching within a flipped learning setting in a cardiovascular physiology module. Despite the module's short duration, core concept-based teaching was associated with enhanced performance among medical students.

Migraine affects women at various life stages, with its frequency and severity influenced by fluctuations in ovarian hormones. The pathophysiology of migraine involves activation of the trigeminovascular system, brain stem regions, and diencephalic nuclei, with neurotransmitters and neuropeptides like serotonin (5-HT), γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), noradrenaline, and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) playing key roles in maintenance of pain. Estrogen modulates these pathways and has a significant impact on migraine pathophysiology in females. Menstrual migraines, linked to estrogen withdrawal and prostaglandin release, can be managed with short-term prophylactic therapies such as selective serotonin agonists, initiated a few days before the expected onset of menstruation, and with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or triptans for breakthrough headaches. During pregnancy, migraines often subside because of stable hormone levels, whereas perimenopause can exacerbate symptoms. Breastfeeding may improve migraine symptoms temporarily. Hormone replacement therapy can reduce migraine frequency in women during the perimenopausal period. A tailored, individualized approach is essential for effective management of migraines in women.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Recent advances in migraine research have deepened understanding of its complex pathophysiology. Sex hormones modulate the neural pathways involved in migraine generation, and explain the higher prevalence and fluctuating pattern of migraine observed in females across different life stages. Consequently, a sex-specific, individualized therapeutic approach is recognized as essential for optimizing management of migraine in women.

Certainty-based marking (CBM) requires students to indicate their certainty levels alongside their answers. CBM has been shown to enhance self-assessment and metacognitive awareness. This study aimed to explore the implementation of CBM in multiple-choice assessments in physiology. The CBM assessment tool was developed with an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, Claude 3.5, with prompts focused on functional rather than technical requirements. The assessment consisted of 15 multiple-choice questions (MCQs), which were administered as a pretest and posttest during a small group teaching session to first-year medical students. Following the assessment, students completed a survey to evaluate their perceptions regarding the format, knowledge-gap identification, and overall acceptability. Answers from 195 students were analyzed, and significant improvements were observed in performance measures and certainty indices from the pretest to the posttest. Most students (80.9%) found the certainty scale beneficial, and 78.3% changed their answers after reflecting on their certainty. CBM demonstrated metacognitive benefits, with 86.4% of students better recognizing their knowledge gaps and 85.8% feeling more aware of their learning progress. About 73% of students preferred the CBM format and expressed greater engagement (82.8%) than traditional MCQs. CBM implemented through a web-based platform functioned as an assessment tool and an instructional intervention that enhanced students' metacognitive awareness and self-monitoring skills in physiology education. Our study focused on a single physiology topic and showed improvements in knowledge retention and certainty calibration. However, further longitudinal studies across multiple topics are needed to determine whether students maintain these self-assessment skills over time.NEW & NOTEWORTHY To introduce certainty-based marking (CBM) to novice students, a custom web-based multiple-choice question (MCQ) test was developed with assistance from an artificial intelligence (AI) tool. This enhanced accessibility and allowed for data collection to evaluate and analyze student performance. The integration of AI in creating this assessment tool highlights the potential of technology to improve educational practices, especially in designing various assessment strategies.

Health science represents the fastest-growing industry in the United States, a trend not predicted to slow for the next decade. The high demand for health professionals is seen with courses in Anatomy and Physiology (A&P), which often have high enrollments, high diversity, and require active pedagogies, hands-on learning, diverse study techniques, and interactions with instructors and peers. In Spring 2020, however, COVID-19 caused major disruptions to everyday life around the world, forcing significant changes to academic curricula and how students were taught. Institutions were forced into all online instruction, thus eliminating hands-on experiences, altering student learning, and hindering student-student and student-instructor interactions. Now that universities are back to in-person classes, there is a great opportunity to evaluate the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic had on student performance and learning. It is important to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 because it can provide information on how to improve pedagogies going forward, while also helping to prepare for when the next pandemic occurs. To identify and analyze the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on student performance and learning, this study compared student performances in A&P labs before and after COVID-19. For A&P I, practical scores and overall grades declined following the pandemic, not returning to prepandemic levels until Fall 2023 (4-5 semesters). For A&P II, practical scores and overall grades declined in the first semester following the pandemic but returned to prepandemic levels in Spring 2022 (1 semester). While this study focuses on university students and courses in a biological field, the findings can be applied to other academic fields and to students across educational levels.NEW & NOTEWORTHY It is important to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 because it can provide information on how to improve pedagogies going forward, while also helping to prepare for when the next pandemic occurs. Practical scores and overall grades declined following the pandemic for Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) I and II courses but returned to prepandemic levels significantly earlier for students in A&P II. The findings here can be applied to other academic fields and to students across educational levels.

Among the "desirable difficulty" (DD) strategies developed by cognitive scientists, retrieval practice and distributed practice are two of the most robust and advantageous. This study evaluated a three-component intervention to enhance student learning that consisted of instruction about the advantages of retrieval and distributed practices, encouragement of independent application of these methods, and the use of pop quizzes to facilitate retrieval and foster distributed studying. Student exam scores were compared in two sections of a university sports nutrition course that differed in only one experimentally relevant way: one received the three-component intervention (DD Strategy Group), whereas the other did not (Control Group). During the DD Strategy Group's first class meeting, the instructor gave the students a 30-minute tutorial in which he introduced retrieval and distributed practices and then summarized the evidence demonstrating the learning advantages of each. The DD Strategy Group also completed 10 pop retrieval quizzes during the semester, each of which consisted of three to five short-answer questions and took roughly 10 min to complete. A multivariate ANOVA with follow up t tests revealed that the DD Strategy Group outscored the Control Group on course exam 1 (t₄₅ = 2.50, P = 0.02, d = 0.8), exam 2 (t₄₅ = 3.35, P < 0.001, d = 1.0), exam 3 (t₄₅ = 4.38, P < 0.001, d = 1.3), and exam 4 (t₄₅ = 4.33, P < 0.001, d = 1.3). In summary, the DD Strategy improved exam performance by nearly 16%, making it a practical and effective way to enhance student learning.NEW & NOTEWORTHY A three-component strategy that included educating students about the counterintuitive benefits of retrieval and distributed practices, encouraging independent application of these methods, and utilizing pop quizzes to facilitate retrieval and foster distributed studying habits resulted in significant increases in student exam performance in a university course.

The decline of in vivo teaching in higher education has resulted in graduates lacking essential experimental skills. To address this gap, we present an easy and cost-effective practical class using the emerging invertebrate model organism Lumbriculus variegatus as an additional in vivo model for education. This practical class enables students to observe the effects of pharmacologically active compounds on the stereotypical behaviors of body reversal and helical swimming in L. variegatus through tactile stimulation. During this class, students will conduct drug dilution calculations, administer test compounds, and conduct an in vivo behavioral experiment. Results from this class demonstrate drug effects in vivo and enable students to observe reversible or irreversible behavioral effects, depending on the compound tested. This class demonstrates L. variegatus as a model for hands-on in vivo teaching, providing students with critical laboratory experience without the need for vertebrate or higher-order mammal models. Furthermore, the approach outlined here is scalable and an adaptable teaching methodology that enhances student engagement with in vivo teaching without costly equipment or complex animal husbandry.NEW & NOTEWORTHY There are increasing societal expectations that the extent of experimentation using animals is reduced in both research and educational fields. This leaves educators and researchers with a problem: how to foster the development of skills and advances in knowledge in future generations? This article seeks to address this problem by providing clear examples of an experimental model that can be used to study fundamental physiological and pharmacological processes using the invertebrate organism Lumbriculus variegatus.

The chick embryo ventricular cardiomyocyte model provides students easy access to experiments involving fundamental features of cardiac cell physiology and pharmacology. With standard physiology teaching laboratories and basic cell culture equipment, spontaneously beating colonies of electrically connected cardiomyocytes can be obtained by the students themselves. Students learn aseptic techniques and cell culture alongside experiments illustrating, at the simplest level of experimentation, how beating rate can be altered physiologically or pharmacologically. In the typical course of the type of experiments presented here, students first observe the effect of temperature (beating rates decline to a third going from 37°C to room temperature; e.g., to 40 from 130 beats/min) and media change (beating rates increase up to 50%) before moving on to the pharmacological characterization of various receptors in these cells. Most obviously, in the cardiac cell context, this involves drugs acting on β-adrenoceptor subtypes. Students can obtain predictable dose-dependent increases in beating rates (up to maximal 100% increases in beating rate; from ∼100 to 200 beats/min typically) with the addition of stimulatory β-adrenoceptor agonists (e.g., isoproterenol) but also observe dose-dependent decreases in beating rate with β₃-adrenoceptor agonists (reducing beating rate by up to a third). Consequently, "classical" log dose-response curves can be obtained in the "real world," enhancing student understanding of fundamental mechanisms of drug action. Although these experiments focus on physiological and pharmacological techniques, the model can be extended to encompass biochemical or molecular biological studies in terms of intracellular signaling systems activated and protein expression patterns.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Many in today's societies see the use of animals for experimentation and education as unnecessary and even immoral. There is nevertheless a need to investigate the fundamental physiological principles underlying life itself, and students need to be trained in these principles for the wider benefit of humanity and the planet. This article provides an ethical alternative to the traditional models used in the study of cardiac physiology to train the next generation of physiologists.

In this article, "Cosmosis" introduces a newly coined metaphorical term that illustrates conceptual parallels between the physiological process of osmosis and the expansive dynamics of the cosmos. Designed as an interdisciplinary teaching framework, Cosmosis provides a novel way to link cellular homeostasis with cosmological principles such as entropy, space-time curvature, and dark energy. By drawing on core physiological terms such as concentration gradients, osmotic pressure, aquaporins, and membrane selectivity, Cosmosis offers an analogy that may spark curiosity, support integrative thinking, and encourage cross-disciplinary dialogue in physiology and biochemistry education.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Cosmosis presents a novel metaphor linking physiological osmosis with cosmic expansion. By integrating concepts from thermodynamics, membrane transport, and cosmology, the model equips educators with a tool to make abstract physiological and universal processes more engaging. This cross-disciplinary framework enriches physiology and biochemistry education by reinforcing shared physical principles and encouraging a unified view of the cellular and cosmic realms.

As artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more integrated into the field of healthcare, medical students need to learn foundational AI literacy. Yet, traditional, descriptive teaching methods of AI topics are often ineffective in engaging the learners. This article introduces a new application of cinema to teaching AI concepts in medical education. With meticulously chosen movie clips from "Enthiran (Tamil)/Robot (Hindi)/Robo (Telugu)" movie, the students were introduced to the primary differences between artificial narrow intelligence (ANI), artificial general intelligence (AGI), and artificial super intelligence (ASI). This method triggered encouraging responses from students, with learners indicating greater conceptual clarity and heightened interest. Film as an emotive and visual medium not only makes difficult concepts easy to understand but also encourages curiosity, ethical consideration, and higher order thought. This pedagogic intervention demonstrates how narrative-based learning can make abstract AI systems more relatable and clinically relevant for future physicians. Beyond technical content, the method can offer opportunities to cultivate critical engagement with ethical and practical dimensions of AI in healthcare. Integrating film into AI instruction could bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and clinical application, offering a compelling pathway to enrich medical education in a rapidly evolving digital age.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This article introduces a new learning strategy that employs film to instruct artificial intelligence (AI) principles in medical education. By introducing clips the from "Enthiran (Tamil)/Robot (Hindi)/Robo (Telugu)" movie to clarify artificial narrow intelligence (ANI), artificial general intelligence (AGI), and artificial super intelligence (ASI), the approach converted passive learning into an emotionally evocative and intellectually stimulating experience. Students experienced enhanced comprehension and increased interest in artificial intelligence. This narrative-driven, visually oriented process promises to incorporate technical and ethical AI literacy into medical curricula with enduring relevance and impact.

Medical education has undergone major reforms with integrated and flipped curricula aiming to enhance active learning and clinical relevance. However, these models often assume a uniform learner profile, potentially disadvantaging nontraditional medical students (NTMSs) who bring diverse backgrounds, experiences, and challenges. This paper explores who NTMSs are, how curricular design impacts their learning, and what targeted strategies support their success. Reviewing current literature, we highlight the importance of flexible pacing, mentorship, recognition of varied strengths, and pipeline initiatives tailored to NTMSs. Examples from physiology education illustrate how integration and active learning can be structured inclusively. We also present institutional models providing practical accommodations and representation for NTMSs. Together, these insights offer a framework for medical schools to foster equity and inclusion, ensuring diverse learners thrive and contribute fully to the healthcare workforce.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This article explores inclusive strategies for teaching nontraditional medical students (NTMSs) in modern medical curricula. It highlights how flipped classrooms, integrated curricula, and institutional models can support diverse learners through structured, active, and clinically relevant approaches. Drawing on recent literature and physiology-focused examples, the article offers practical, evidence-based insights for designing learning environments that promote equity, engagement, and academic success for students with varied backgrounds, life experiences, and educational pathways.