Paris (AFP)

On a small stage, Chaplin Charlie Chaplin, Theresa May mixes her words and Kate Winslet vomits losing balance, clinging to the Titanic rail. Theater? No: neurology classes, where medical students learn the symptoms of illness through comedy and mime.

"It allows to associate technical terms with a gesture.We retain much better like that," says AFP Marion François-Elie, a student at the faculty of Sorbonne University in Paris.

At his side, Cassandra Diaz agrees: "Later, in front of patients, we will understand much better what they live".

The two young women participated Wednesday and Thursday in an event called The Move Europe, in the amphitheater of the Brain Institute (ICM), in the Paris Hospital Pitié-Salpêtrière.

It is a tournament between European universities where this fun education is provided: Paris, Bordeaux, Rennes, Lille for France, as well as London, Dublin and Lisbon.

Each time, two teams made up of a handful of students oppose to treat of a syndrome or a disease in skits of 5 minutes, prepared in advance. Written, these mini-plays must describe the symptoms closer to reality.

A jury of neurology specialists evaluates them, modeled on the musical program The Voice. It takes into account the originality of the scenarios and the precision with which the symptoms are mimicked.

Disguised and equipped with accessories, aspiring doctors give themselves to their heart's content.

For Parkinson, Bordeaux College plays a remake of "Back to the Future". With each trip in time, the symptoms of the main character get worse (loss of smell, tremors, motor problems). An allusion to the fact that the American film actor, Michael J. Fox, is actually suffering from this disease.

For aphasia, a language disorder, the Dublin School stages a press conference by Theresa May at the time of Brexit.

Interpreted by a student, wig on his head, the former British Prime Minister says nonsense sentences.

"We are dealing with Wernicke's aphasia: the patient is speaking, but his words are not the right ones, even if grammatically the order is correct, so the hardest part was learning the dialogues!" the AFP the false (or rather the false) Ms. May, Alexander McDaid.

- "Neurophobia" -

The skits are linked, diseases and staging ideas too: an epileptic Harry Potter, the final of Wimbledon 1999 Sampras-Agassi interrupted by the discomfort of a bullet-gatherer with vestibular syndrome (vertigo, nausea ...), or a crazy version of "Titanic", whose heroine suffers from this same evil.

Student-actors have fun, but, sign that we are (too) there to learn, enamels their dialogues of real technical terms: epileptoid foot trepidation, ataxic walking, Mingazzini maneuver ...

In the hall, their opponents applaud or heckle them gently, far from the solemnity of a lecture. If some finds make you laugh, there's no question of making fun of the sick, but of putting yourself in their place.

This method of teaching, offered in the second year of medicine and supported by the ICM, was developed in 2014 by the team of Emmanuel Flamand-Roze, neurologist at Pitié-Salpêtrière.

Since then, it has spread in Europe, and can even replace lectures to learn neurological signs and symptoms (semiology).

"We realized that our students had excellent theoretical knowledge, but had difficulty putting it into practice, especially in neurology," says Pr Flamand-Roze.

"Whether they are European, African, Asian or American, students often consider neurology as the most difficult subject, and fear it," he continues.

"This phenomenon is called + neurophobia +, and can be overcome with this joyful and stimulating learning method," he says.

Camille Béhar, a Parisian student, agrees: "Me, I do not review the neuro anymore For the semiology, everything is in the head, frankly!"

? 2019 AFP