Terms and Definitions
The following is a list of words that we used in the other synesthesia pages that may not be generally understood. Hopefully these definitions and explanations will make the concepts more understandable. If you find any other words or concepts that you are having trouble with please feel free to contact us via the authors' page e-mail link for a more understandable explanation. Thanks.
- Attention Deficit Disorder
- A disorder associated with low attention spans and hyperactivity
- Autism
- From early childhood there is severe impairment in communication and social interactions, and actions are often repetitive and unchanging
- Bimodal
- Dealing with two modalities
- Brain Stem
- The hindbrain and midbrain of the vertebrate nervous system; it forms a cap of the top of the spinal cord and extend to the middle of the brain
- Cognitive
- thought processes
- Cross-Modal Association
- Crossing of sensory pathways
- Degeneration
- A process by which tissue deteriorates, loses functional activity and may become converted into or replaced by other kinds of tissue
- Dominant
- A part of a gene that is always expressed when it is there.
- Dyslexia
- A disorder where things are done or read backwards. For example, a "d" and a "b" might be confused
- Epileptic
- A person who has epilepsy, a chronic brain disorder characterized by recurrent seizures
- Gustation
- Sense of taste
- Hippocampus
- A region in the temporal lobe of the brain that is associated with learning and memory
- Intermodal
- see "cross-modal association"
- Lesion
- A damaged area
- Limbic
- Referring to the limbic system, an evolutionarily older section of the brain that is associated with emotion, learning, and memory
- Metabolism
- The sum processes or chemical changes in an organism by which energy is used
- Modular
- A distinct pathway
- Neocortex
- The most evolutionarily advanced part of the brain, found only in mammals and largest in humans; also called the cortex; associated with higher levels of processing information
- Neonates
- Newborns
- Nerves
- A bunch of neurons running in parallel
- Neurons
- A nerve cell; the fundamental unit of the nervous system that works by conducting electrical and chemical signals throughout the brain
- Olfaction
- sense of smell
- Positron Emission Tomography(PET)
- A technique used for imaging the brain activity by measuring the flow of blood containing radioactive atoms that emit positrons
- Premotor Cortex
- Area of the cortex in front of the motor area
- Recessive
- A part of the gene that is only expressed if a dominant allele is not present
- Sensory modality
- A pathway, such as the visual circuit
- Synapse
- Area between two nerve cells
- Tactile
- Sense of touch
- Temporal Lobe
- A part of the brain, located in both hemispheres near the temple area; associated with audition, speech, and memories
- Transient
- Remaining only for a short time
- Ventral
- A direction referring to areas closer to the belly, as opposed to the back (dorsal)