en آموزش پزشکی Medical Education پژوهشي اصیل Orginal Research <span style="line-height:2;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><b>Background & Objective:</b> Medical education demands understanding of complex anatomical structures and functional correlations. Anatomy learning presents unique challenges requiring spatial visualization, memory consolidation, and conceptual understanding. Despite competency-based curricula implementation, considerable variability persists in student anatomy performance. This study aimed to assess anatomy learning preferences among first-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students and analyze their relationship with academic performance in anatomy.<br> <b>Materials & Methods:</b> A cross-sectional analytical study was carried out among 233 first-year MBBS students at the Department of Anatomy of a medical institute in Chennai, achieving a response rate of 93.2% (233/250). A validated 20-item questionnaire assessed four learning preference modalities: Visual-Spatial (VS), Auditory-Verbal (AV), Textual-Analytical (TA), and Tactile-Kinesthetic (TK). Academic performance was measured through formative theory and practical assessments. Statistical analyses included Spearman correlation, Kruskal-Wallis test, chi-square test, and independent t-tests.<br> <b>Results:</b> Among 233 participants, learning preference distribution showed: visual-spatial dominance in 30.9% (n = 72), tactile-kinesthetic in 28.3% (n = 66), auditory-verbal in 20.2% (n = 47), textual-analytical in 13.3% (n = 31), and multimodal preferences in 7.3% (n = 17). Tactile-kinesthetic preference showed a significant positive correlation with practical performance (r = 0.187, p = 0.004). Students with kinesthetic dominance scored significantly higher in practical assessments (53.25 &plusmn; 12.21) compared to non-kinesthetic learners (49.56 &plusmn; 12.66, p = 0.047). Textual-analytical preference demonstrated a negative correlation with both theory (r = -0.208, p = 0.001) and practical performance (r = -0.216, p < 0.001). Memory retention was identified as the primary learning challenge by 55.8% of students.<br> <b>Conclusion:</b> Learning preferences, particularly kinesthetic preference, significantly influence practical anatomy performance. The findings validate the continued importance of hands-on dissection and laboratory-based learning while highlighting the inadequacy of text-based learning as a sole approach. Integration of traditional cadaveric dissection with emerging technologies and blended learning approaches offers optimal pathways for anatomy education.</span></span></span><br> &nbsp; learning preferences, anatomy, education, medical, academic performance, kinesthetic learning 58 68 http://edujournal.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-12-3474-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Sharmila Aristotle sharmianat@gmail.com 5300319475328460037173 5300319475328460037173 Yes Department of Anatomy, Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, kelambakkam 603103, Tamil Nadu, India sharmila aristotle sharmianat@gmaill.com 5300319475328460037174 5300319475328460037174 No Professor and head,Department of Anatomy, Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, kelambakkam 603103, Tamil Nadu, India. Saikarthik Jayakumar s.jaya@mu.edu.sa 5300319475328460037175 5300319475328460037175 No Associate professor of anatomy,dept of maxillofacial surgery and diagnostic sciences, college of dentistry,majmaah university,AI majmaah,kingdom of saudiarabia 11952 Balakrishnan Ramamoorthy drbalkrish83@gmail.com 5300319475328460037176 5300319475328460037176 No 3Department of Anatomy,SRM Medical College Hospital and Research center, Faculty of medical and health sciences ,SRMIST,Kattankulathur.603203.Tamilnadu,India