“Graph's disease” and students' anxieties in understanding physiology

Abstract

Graphs are visual summaries that explain the phenomenon in different disciplines. Students who approach physiology in rote-learning mode usually have more difficulty and anxieties to understand the graphical information. Graphs can be used in many ways to conceptualize much of physiology. The relationship between the X-axis and Y-axis variables can indicate a cause and effect scenario as in the hemoglobin-oxygen association/dissociation. Temporal, sequential events are illustrated with the X-axis as the time parameter and several changing parameters can be followed along the Y-axis in a dynamic way as in the Wigger's cardiac cycle diagram. Graphs can also provide a different perspective on the fluctuations between two parameters that is produced by a third physiologic event as seen in the ventricular volume-pressure loop. Hopefully, this article on physiological graphs will help students to relax and enjoy looking and thinking through the different line profiles in graphs they face in their “Physbook.”

Keywords

• Correlation
• graph
• interpretation
• physiology