Mind Map Teaching of Gross Anatomy is Sex Dependent

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using Mind Maps in teaching anatomy and compare it with traditional based slide. This cross-sectional research was carried out in 2009 on 79 second year medical undergraduate students at Ahvaz Jondishapour University of Medical sciences. Four class lectures on the topics of head and neck osteology were taught. The lectures were slide based designed that were chosen from the chapters in the anatomy textbooks and presented by means of a video projection power point system. The students divided randomly into two groups; one group educated by traditional slides while the other by mind map based designed ones. At the end of the term, a multiple-choice involved forty test was undertaken from two groups. The data was investigated using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and paired T test (p<0.05). The mean scores of females in mind map group were higher than that for traditional one (p<0.04), while there were no significant differences in the mean scores of the men of two groups. The mean scores of females were significantly higher than the males in mind map group (p<0.02) and although the mean scores of females in traditional group was higher it was not significant. This paper has shown the efficacy of using mind maps for teaching gross anatomy as a study aid, even when use has been limited to a single exposure. The study found sex-dependent of learning, suggesting that sex may determine the optimal neural network for designing teaching protocols. Indeed, for females, that have obtained better scores, the use of bilateral neural network seems to facilitate the learning process by mind map teaching of anatomy.