Glossary
Agnosia: disturbances in the recognition or perception of familiar information
Alexia: the loss of the ability to read
Amusia: the loss of musical ability
Anomia: inability to remember or find words
Anosognosia: near total failure to recognize a neurologic deficit or disease
Aphasia: impairment or loss of the faculty to use or understand spoken or written language
Apraxia: disturbance in the organization of movements including the inability to perform purposeful movements on command
Bilateral Damage: damage to both sides of the brain
Brain Stem: a section of the brain consisting of the midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata
Catastrophic Reaction: extreme and disruptive transient emotional disturbance
Central Nervous System (CNS): the brain and the spinal cord
Cerebral Cortex: the thin layer of grey matter that covers the surface of the cerebral hemispheres
Cerebrum: the portion of the brain which is composed of two hemispheres united by the corpus callosum; it occupies the whole upper part of the cranium and includes the telencephalon (endbrain), diencephalon, basal ganglia, and rhinencephalon (olfactory brain)
Closed Head Injury: the traumatization (by blow, shaking, etc.) of the brain where the skull has not been penetrated or broken through
Coagulate: to change from a liquid state into a clot or jelly, as blood
Commissures: horizontal (lateral) strands of nerve fiber connections
Compensation: the circumvention of impairments that have arisen without necessarily producing an improvement in capacity
Computerized Tomography (CT): a neuroimaging procedure utilizing X-ray employed to reveal detailed structure of the brain
Concussion: traumatically induced alteration of mental status, characterized by immediate and transient impairment of neural function not necessarily with loss of consciousness
Constructional Apraxia: deficit in ability to draw a copy from a model
Contractures: shortening or distortion of muscular tissue due to spasm, scar or paralysis of the antagonist of the contracting muscle; characterized by spasm
Contrecoup: the point opposite the point of impact
Corpus Callosum: the great transverse commissure of white matter deep in the longitudinal fissure that connects the cerebral hemispheres
CT scan: cranial computed tomography is a radiological procedure whereby images of brain sections are generated
Diencephalon: the part of the cerebrum which includes the thalamus, hypothalamus, subthalamus, and epithalamus
Discourse: contextual, narrative and conversational language
Dressing Apraxia: inability to orient to and place clothing on one’s body
Dysarthria: articulation disorders
Dysphagia: difficulty in swallowing
Dyspraxia: inability to perform coordinated movements
Echolalia: repetition of words spoken by others
Epilepsy: a disorder involving abnormal electrical activity generated within the brain
Facial Agnosia: inability to recognize familiar faces
Fasciculi: fiber bundles or tracts of groups of neurons in the central nervous system which act as connections or pathways
Glial Cell: a type of brain cell which supports and expedites the activity of neurons
Hemiparesis: weakness on one side of the body
Hypoxia: a deficiency of oxygen reaching tissues of the body whether due to environmental deficiency or impaired respiratory and circulatory organs
Incontinence: unable to hold back bodily discharges or evacuations
Mutism: total abolition of speech
Palilalia: automatic repetition of one’s own words
Paralysis: a loss or impairment of sensation and/or muscle function
Paresis: partial motor paralysis
Paresthesia: abnormal sensations such as prickling, itching, tingling, burning
Penetrating Head Injury: penetrating beyond the surface of the skull (Brain)
Plasticity: the ability of the nervous system to recover a function after damage has caused the loss of it
Positron (Dual Photon) Emission Tomography (PET): a dynamic neuroimaging procedure which reveals functional activity in the brain
Posttraumatic Amnesia (PTA): a form of transient memory disruption following TBI in which one loses the inability to retain any information from one moment to the next
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): a set of specific symptoms (such as intrusive recollections, nightmares, or anxiety about a traumatic event) which follow exposure to a psychologically distressing event outside the range of usual human experience
Rehabilitation: restoration to a condition of good health, or former capacity
Restoration: renewal or revival of lost capacity or function often by exercises, drills, or repetitive practice
Retrograde Amnesia: the inability to recall information from time prior to injury
Seizure: a sudden, transient disturbance of cerebral function due to abnormal neuronal discharge of the brain, as of epilepsy or neuralgia
Shock: a collapse of circulatory function characterized by pallor, sweating, weak pulse, and very low blood pressure
Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT): a dynamic neuroimaging procedure which reveals functional activity in the brain
Sleep: an active state of the brain controlled by elaborate and precise mechanisms in the brain stem
Somatosensory: body sensation
Sonophobia: the fear or avoidance of sound or noise
Spasm: sudden, violent, involuntary contraction of a muscle or groups of muscles attended by pain and interference with function, producing involuntary movement and distortion
Spasticity: characterized by spasm
Spatial Agnosia: disorientation with respect to locations and spatial relationships
Thromboembolism: stopping up of a vein or artery by blood clot
Tomography: radiographic (diagnostic X-ray) process by which the image of a selected body section (plane) is produced using the linear or curved motion of the x-ray tube and film cassette; the images of all other planes are out of focus and blurred due to their relative displacement on the film
Vigilance: the capacity to sustain behavior over time