Education Research: Explaining Neurophobia in Medical Students: A Comparison With Math Anxiety.

Background and Objectives: Neurophobia, or the fear of the study and practice of neurology or neuroscience, plagues learners and practitioners of all types. Neurophobia is a global phenomenon and adversely affects medical education, the field of neurology, and ultimately patient care. Despite this, there is still much to be understood. It is reasonable to compare this relatively undefined phenomenon in medical education to lack of confidence or anxiety in other areas of education that are more well-understood. One of the best studied is the fear of mathematics, often referred to as math anxiety (MA). MA has 3 major causal categories relating to the learning environment, the material itself, and characteristics of the learner. We aim to have a deeper understanding of the causes of neurophobia for medical students while comparing this with MA. Methods: This study used constructivist grounded theory, informed by MA, to understand the causes of neurophobia for medical students. Four groups of 6 to 8 medical students from each year of the curriculum were recruited purposively and engaged in semistructured focus group discussions guided by sensitizing concepts of MA until saturation, or thematic adequacy was reached. Results: We identify 5 major themes and 18 subthemes related to neurophobia. Three of these themes are comparable with MA and relate to the Environment, the Material, and traits of the Learner. The Environment includes influential experiences during and before medical school. The Material includes the influences of both the content and curriculum. The Learner includes factors of student self-concept and confidence. One emerging theme includes the "Black Box" phenomenon, or the inscrutability of neurology, in both the opacity of the material and isolation throughout the curriculum. Another theme, we call Career Perspective, is how the student's perceived relevance and utility of the subject profoundly effects neurophobia. Discussion: We propose a new model for neurophobia partially informed by MA. It acknowledges the effect of each individual theme and their relationship with each other. We suggest this model has important implications for more effective interventions aimed at addressing neurophobia in medical students and directing future research.