The relation between cerebral dominance and visual analytic skills in Iraqi Medical students, a cross sectional analysis

Background: Cerebral dominance, also known as lateralization of brain functions, is the neurologic phenomenon in which one hemisphere is dominant over the other, and will thereby exercise greater influence over certain functions. The cerebral lateralization of many vertebrates, indicates an evolutionary advantage associated with the cerebral specialization. In humans, the majority of people are of left cerebral dominance. True bilateral cerebral dominance, manifested in ambidexterity, is exceedingly rare.Aims and Objective: To derive a statistical inference between determined parameters of cerebral dominance and the 3-dimensional visual analytic skills. The parameters are: handedness, , gender, and language skills.Materials and Methods: This survey targeted an audience of undergraduate medical students, 103 of them replied and fully completed an electronic-distributed survey. All participants were blinded to the outcome and aims of the study (single-blinded experimental design). The survey was created via Google Forms, and made available online for three days, on the University intranet system. Compiled data resulted in 523 pages. Statistical analyses were conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, Shodor-Interactivate software, and Microsoft Excel 2016. References of this paper, were retrieved via a detailed systematic review of literature databases, while carrying out critical evaluation of evidence. The databases included: PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Scopus, OpenGrey, and Google Scholar.Results: Males and females participated in the survey (34 and 69 participants respectively), 91 of participants (88.4%) were right-handed. Mapped participants’ demographics included: age, gender, handedness, siblings’ and parents’ handedness, number of siblings and birth order, and number of spoken languages. The 3D-visual analytic skills, were evaluated via a cross sectional survey and objectively-evaluated via a professional visual IQ testing. Statistics proven that there was no significant correlation between the 3D-visual skills and any of the tested parameters. Significance was considered at a p-value of 0.05 or less.Conclusion: In this sample of 103 tested subjects, all of which were not professional Anatomists. Our tested hypothesis of the presence of potential correlation between handedness (and other parameters of cerebral dominance) with the three-dimensional visual analytic skills, were proven statistically to be non-existent. Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.7(5) 2016 47-52

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4.20 Teenagers as Medical Students in Colombia: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Key Mental Health Indicators

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.jaac.2018.09.246 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 57 (10) ◽

pp. S211

Author(s):

Daniel E. Suarez ◽

Andrés C. Cardozo ◽

David Ellmer ◽

Elena M. Trujillo

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Medical Students ◽

Health Indicators ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Cross Sectional Analysis ◽

Sectional Analysis

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Ego defense mechanisms in Pakistani medical students: a cross sectional analysis

BMC Psychiatry ◽

10.1186/1471-244x-10-12 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Maria A Parekh ◽

Hina Majeed ◽

Tuba R Khan ◽

Anum B Khan ◽

Salman Khalid ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Defense Mechanisms ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Cross Sectional Analysis ◽

Ego Defense Mechanisms ◽

Ego Defense ◽

Sectional Analysis

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Association between dispositional empathy and self-other distinction in Irish and Belgian medical students: a cross-sectional analysis

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048597 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. e048597

Author(s):

Henryk Bukowski ◽

Nor Faizaah Ahmad Kamal ◽

Deirdre Bennett ◽

Gabriella Rizzo ◽

Colm O'Tuathaigh

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Cognitive Empathy ◽

Self Report ◽

Cognitive Domain ◽

Secondary Outcome ◽

Undergraduate Medical Students ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Cross Sectional Analysis ◽

Sectional Analysis

ObjectivePhysicians’ cognitive empathy is associated with improved diagnosis and better patient outcomes. The relationship between self-reported and performance-based measures of cognitive empathic processes is unclear.DesignCross-sectional analysis of the association between medical students’ empathy scale scores and their empathic performance in a visuospatial perspective-taking (VPT) task.ParticipantsUndergraduate medical students across two European medical schools (n=194).Primary and secondary outcome measuresTwo self-report empathy and one performance-based perspective-taking outcome: Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE); Empathy Quotient (EQ); Samson’s level-1 VPT task.ResultsHigher scores on the ‘standing in patient’s shoes’ subscale of the JSPE were associated with a lower congruency effect (as well as lower egocentric and altercentric biases) in the VPT (B=−0.007, 95% CI=−0.013 to 0.002, p<0.05), which reflects an association with better capacity to manage conflicting self-other perspectives, also known as self-other distinction. Lower egocentric bias was also associated with higher scores on the ‘social skills’ EQ subscale (B=−10.17, 95% CI=−17.98 to 2.36, p<0.05). Additionally, selection of a ‘technique-oriented’ clinical specialty preference was associated with a higher self-perspective advantage in the VPT, reflecting greater attentional priority given to the self-perspective.ConclusionsWe show that self-assessment scores are associated with selected performance-based indices of perspective taking, providing a more fine-grained analysis of the cognitive domain of empathy assessed in medical student empathy scales. This analysis allows us to generate new critical hypotheses about the reasons why only certain self-report empathy measures (or their subscales) are associated with physicians’ observed empathic ability.

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