NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ1488389
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Nov
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1935-9772
EISSN: EISSN-1935-9780
Available Date: 2025-09-07
Anatomy at the Threshold: Teaching the Human Body in a Hybrid Age
Anatomical Sciences Education, v18 n11 p1301-1309 2025
As emerging technologies reshape both the body and how we represent it, anatomical education stands at a threshold. Virtual dissection tools, AI-generated images, and immersive platforms are redefining how students learn anatomy, while real-world bodies are becoming hybridized through implants, neural interfaces, and bioengineered components. This Viewpoint explores what it means to teach human anatomy when the body is no longer entirely natural, and the image is no longer entirely real. Based on recent evidence and educational reflections, it suggests that anatomy can serve as a critical human science, one that goes beyond structural knowledge, encouraging students to develop visual literacy, structural reasoning, and ethical awareness. As experiences with donated bodies are replaced with digital models, students risk losing contact with the lived, variable, and vulnerable aspects of the human form. Yet, rather than resisting change, anatomists can respond by integrating new tools within a pedagogical model grounded in presence and meaning. In an age where biology and technology are converging with unexpected speed, anatomy offers a powerful lens to question not only how bodies work, but what bodies mean. The role of the anatomist is therefore both conservative and visionary: to hold the line of deep biological knowledge, while opening the door to critical engagement with the hybrid human condition.
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1DIMES, Department of Experimental Medicine, Human Anatomy, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; 2Human Anatomy, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy; 3Experimental Imaging Center, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, Italy