Drawing BRAINS: Infusing Neuroscience Education with Health Humanities
• Duke medical students learn the foundation for clinical practice in neurology and psychiatry during a first-year course, called Brain and Behavior, which is allocated 17-20 days of contact during the month of January. Of necessity, the course progresses through a large canon of knowledge in the medical neurosciences at an accelerated pace. Despite these limitations, the course has been well received and highly rated by students. • However, we believe that the “fast learning” demanded by an accelerated survey of neurophysiology, clinical neuroanatomy, and the biological foundations of human behavior would be enhanced by infusion of “slow learning” inherent in the humanities. • As an extension of the Anatomy Drawing Program, sponsored by the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine, we encouraged students to engage human brain specimens as objects worthy of ‘close reading’ and ‘re-presentation’ in artistic form.
- 2018