From Claude Bernard to the Batcave and beyond: using the life of the Caped Crusader to explore the integrative physiology of stress, exercise and injury

The pop‐culture icon of Batman was used as an educational vehicle for popularizing physiology. Through his years of rigorous training the fictional human Batman pulled himself to near‐superhuman status. Evaluating the scientific possibility this means examining the Batman mythology from the perspective of integrative physiology. This is the main premise of the book “Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). The book was created in 4 stages involving: 1) a physiological assessment of occupations that parallel those of the fictitious Dark Knight; 2) articulating the concepts of homeostasis and stress; 3) connecting physiological adaptation in multiple and overlapping systems (e.g. nervous, musculoskeletal, endocrine); & 4) examining the adaptive capacity for these multiple systems to yield peak performance. Thus the approach was about explaining how the human body works and responds to exercise and training using Batman as the metaphor for ultimate performance. Main physiological concepts addressed in the text include the concept of homeostasis, Seyle's general adaptation syndrome, hierarchical organization of the nervous system, neural adaptations to skill training and motor learning, the neuropsychology of martial arts training and combat, pathophysiology of concussion, and the role for repeated trauma in the etiology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. This approach was meant to bring scientific understanding to non‐specialists and the broader public by using an anchor point that was well understood (that of the physical image and impression everyone has of Batman) and then connecting science to that anchor. The objective is to share with other academics the process and positive and negative outcomes of using such an approach.