- aberrant - does not obey, independent in action
- Acalculia - deficit in the ability to perform calculations
- Achromatopsia - an acquired difficulty in perceiving color
- Agnosia - an inability to recognize familiar objects where the inability is not due to sensory impairment or intellectual deterioration.
- Agnostic - an inability to recognize familiar objects where the inability is not due to sensory impairment or intellectual deterioration.
- agrammatic - lacking in correct grammatical syntax.
- Agraphia - an acquired inability to write
- Alexia - an acquired inability to read
- allesthesia - when a patient is touched on the neglected side, the patient reports that he was touched on the intact side
- amnesia - inability to remember (e.g. anterograde amnesia: inability to remember new information)
- Amnesic - a person who is unable to remember new information
- amusia - the failure to recognize melodies
- amygdala - a component of the limbic system in the temporal lobes that mediates fear and aggression
- anarthria - deficit in the articulation of speech
- angular gyrus - a gyrus of the parietal lobe
- Anomia - deficit in the ability to name
- anosmia - unable to smell
- Anoxia - condition of reduced oxygen in the blood circulation
- anterior - toward the front
- anterograde - After or following an injury or event
- Aphemia - A speech disorder characterized by functional mutism
- apraxia - an acquired inability to carry out skilled movement which is not due to comprehension, motor, or sensory deficit
- arcuate fasciculus - A pathway connecting the parietal lobe with the frontal lobe
- Astereognosis - an inability to recognize objects by feeling them
- ataxia - incoordination of movement produced by damage to the cerebellum
- Autobiographical - the personal history
- Autopagnosia - an acquired inability to recognize parts of the body
- basal ganglia - large nuclear masses within the brain which are part of the extraparamidal motor system.
- bilateral - referring to both sides
- Buccofacial - Referring to the face and mouth (e.g. Buccofacial Apraxia, loss of motor coordination of the mouth.
- Callosal - referring to the large band of fibers which connects the two hemispheres, the corpus callosum.
- cerebellum - the part of the brain responsible for making motor movements smooth and coordinated.
- cerebrum - referring to the cortex of the brain.
- cingulate - referring to the cingulum, a part of the limbic system.
- cingulum - a pathway connecting the hippocampus to the frontal septal nuclei.
- circumlocution - talking around a word rather than being able to name it.
- commissure - a fiber tract which connects the two cerebral hemispheres
- confabulates - relating imaginery details to fill in the gaps of memory
- Confabulation - relating imaginery details to fill in the gaps of memory
- consolidation - the process of storing information in memory.
- corpus callosum - the large band of fibers which connects the two hemispheres.
- cortex
- the gray matter of the brain.
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D through H
- declarative - conscious, stated openly
- dementia - an acquired deterioration of mental function.
- disconnection syndrome - any syndrome caused by a disconnection of brain centers.
- dorsolateral - the outside top and lateral surface of the frontal lobe
- dysprosodic - monotone speech
- echolalic - having a compulsion to repeat what is heard.
- episodic - memory related to temporal events.
- executive - referring to the frontal lobes
- ExnerÕs area - A secondary motor control area in the frontal lobe. It mediates writing skill.
- Explicit - Apparent and consciously appreciated by the subject
- fluency - the ability to produce smooth, well-coordinated speech
- fluent - smooth and without hesitation
- forebrain - the frontal part of the brain
- fusiform - a gyrus in the medial part of the occiptal lobe
- goal-directed - purposeful activity
- hemi-akinesia - absence or poverty of movement on one half of the body
- hemi-neglect - an inattention to one side of space
- Hemiakinesia - absence or poverty of movement on one half of the body
- hemianopsia - inability to process visual information from one half of the visual field
- Hemianesthesia - loss of sensation on one side of the body
- Hemineglect - an inattention to one side of space
- hemiplegia - paralysis on one side of the body
- hippocampal - referring to the hippocampus, a part of the limbic system and important in the storage of new information
- hippocampus - a part of the limbic system and important in the storage of new information
- histologically - Referring to the microscopic cell anatomy
- Homonymous Hemianopsia - defective vision for the right or left half of the visual field
- hypokinesia - abnormally diminished motor activity
- hypothalamus
- a part of the diencephalon which controls peripheral autonomic mechanisms,
endocrine activities and many somatic activities.
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I through R
- Ideomotor - motor function mediated by cortical control mechanisms
- impersistence - the inability to persist in an activity
- implicit - Information that is perceived and processed outside of conscious awareness
- initiation - starting an action
- intermanual - between both hands, as intermanual conflict in callosal disconnection
- intractable - persists, does not respond to treatment
- jargon - nonsensical speech
- Kinetic - pertaining to or producing motion
- limbic - the system relating to emotion
- locked in - being alert and aware but unable to respond to the environment
- longitudinal fasciculus - a bundle of fibers which connects posterior association cortex with the frontal lobes.
- mesial - in the middle
- mute - unable to speak
- mutism - inability to speak
- nonfluent - hesitant, halting speech
- occipital - the lobe at the back of the brain, responsible for visual perception
- occipitotemporal - referring to the occipital and temporal lobes of the brain
- olfactory - referring to smell
- operculum - the folds of the brain overlying the insula
- optic - pertaining to the eye
- orbital - area around to orbits of the eyes
- Paraphasias - aphasia characterized by using the wrong word or the wrong phonemes within a word
- paraphasic - aphasia characterized by using the wrong word or the wrong phonemes within a word
- Parietal - pertaining to the parietal lobes of the brain
- perisylvian - surrounding the Sylvian Fissure, the large gyrus that separates the temporal lobe from the frontal and parietal lobes
- perseverate - persistent repetition of the same activity.
- perseveration - persistent repetition of the same activity.
- perseverative - referring to the persistent repetition of the activity.
- phonemic - referring to the phoneme of words.
- Post-mortem - occurring after death.
- praxis - the ability to perform coordinated movements or a series of actions
- precentral - a part of the frontal lobe anterior to the motor strip
- prefrontal - a part of the frontal lobe anterior to the the supplementary motor strip
- procedural - memory for actions such as riding a bike or shuffling cards
- proprioceptive - information pertaining to the location and position of body parts
- Prosopagnosia - an acquired inability to recognize familiar faces
- pyramidal tracts - long fiber tracts arising in the motor strip and passing down through the spinal cord.
- Reduplication - reproducing a familiar environment on a current one.
- retrograde - pertaining to before illness onset.
- resection
- surgical removal
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S through Z
- salient - obvious, apparent
- seizure - a sudden episode of abnormal electrical activity in the brain
- semantic paraphasias - substituting a semantically related but incorrect word
- Simultanagnosia - a visual disturbance characterized by the inability to perceive more than one thing in the visual field.
- somatosensory - sensation from the skin, muscles and joints (touch, pain, temperature and position sense
- splenium - the posterior end of the corpus callosum
- Stereopsis - binocular vision
- subcortical - structures below the cortex, such as the white matter pathways and the basal ganglia
- substantia nigra - area in the brainstem that is part of the extrapyramidal motor system (including the basal ganglia, substantia nigra and subthalamic nucleus)
- sulcus - fold in the cortex
- superordinate - a category at one level of abstraction over another catgory or subordinate elements. For example, the catgory ÒLiving ThingsÓ is superordinate to the categories, ÒPlantsÓ and ÒAnimalsÓ.
- syntax - The rules that form the structure of language.
- tactile - Referring to touch sensation
- temporal - Referring to the temporal lobe or to the order of time
- thalamus - a sensory control structure in the center of the brain. Sensory pathways from the sense organs transfer information to the thalamus before it is received by the sensory perception centers in the cortex.
- unilateral - pertaining to one side
- ventromedial - toward the middle and toward the bottom or abdomen part of an object
- watershed - the distal extent of the arterial circulation. The area that receives the least blood pressure.
- white matter pathways - pathways made up of nerve cell axons that convey information from one part of the brain to another. Most white matter is beneath the cortex
A through C
