The attitudes of medical students towards the clinical importance of neuroanatomy have been little studied. Because it has been reported that medical students find neuroanatomy difficult and can have ‘neurophobia’, here we test the hypothesis that early-stage medical students across Europe have a low regard for neuroanatomy’s clinical relevance. The work was conducted under the auspices of the Trans-European Pedagogic Research Group (TEPARG), with just over 1,500 students from 12 European medical schools providing responses to a survey (52% response rate) that assessed their attitudes using Thurstone and Chave methodologies. Regardless of the university surveyed, and of the teaching methods employed for neuroanatomy, our findings were not consistent with our hypothesis. However, the students had a less favourable opinion of neuroanatomy’s importance compared to gross anatomy; although their attitudes were more positive than previously reported for histology and embryology. The extent to which neuroanatomy plays a significant role in the early years of medical education is moot. Nevertheless, we conclude that in addition to newly recruited medical students being informed of the subject’s role in a healthcare profession, we advocate the use of modern imaging technologies to enhance student understanding and motivation and cognisance of the core syllabus for the subject being developed by the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA).

医学生对神经解剖学临床重要性的态度鲜有研究。因为据报道，医学生发现神经解剖学很困难并且可能有“神经恐惧症”，因此我们在这里检验了欧洲各地的早期医学生对神经解剖学的临床相关性的重视程度较低的假设。这项工作是在跨欧洲教育研究小组 (TEPARG) 的主持下进行的，来自 12 所欧洲医学院的 1,500 多名学生对一项使用 Thurstone 和 Chave 方法评估他们的态度的调查做出了回应（52% 的回应率）。无论接受调查的大学和神经解剖学的教学方法如何，我们的发现都与我们的假设不一致。然而，与大体解剖学相比，学生们对神经解剖学的重要性的看法不太好；尽管他们的态度比以前报道的组织学和胚胎学更积极。神经解剖学在医学教育的早期发挥重要作用的程度尚无定论。尽管如此，我们得出的结论是，除了让新招收的医学生了解该学科在医疗保健行业中的作用外，我们还提倡使用现代成像技术来增强学生对正在开发的学科核心教学大纲的理解和动力。国际解剖学家协会联合会 (IFAA)。神经解剖学在医学教育的早期发挥重要作用的程度尚无定论。尽管如此，我们得出的结论是，除了让新招收的医学生了解该学科在医疗保健行业中的作用外，我们还提倡使用现代成像技术来增强学生对正在开发的学科核心教学大纲的理解和动力。国际解剖学家协会联合会 (IFAA)。神经解剖学在医学教育的早期发挥重要作用的程度尚无定论。尽管如此，我们得出的结论是，除了让新招收的医学生了解该学科在医疗保健行业中的作用外，我们还提倡使用现代成像技术来增强学生对正在开发的学科核心教学大纲的理解和动力。国际解剖学家协会联合会 (IFAA)。