Abstract Reasoning – process of generalizing from concrete examples and experiences to larger, broader principles.
Acalulia – dysfunction or inability to perform mathematical operations, recognize numbers, or count.
Adaptive/Assistive Equipment – devices, which assist in the performance of self-care, work, play/leisure activities, or physical exercises.
ADL – activities of daily living. Routine activities carried out for personal hygiene and health.
Agnosia – loss of ability to recognize familiar people, places, and objects.
Amnesia – lack of memory about events during a period of time.
Aneurysm – a balloon-like deformity in the wall of a blood vessel. As the wall weakens, the balloon grows larger and may burst, causing hemorrhage.
Anomia – inability to name objects or recall individual names.
Anosmia – loss of smell
Anoxia – lack of oxygen to the brain, resulting in damage.
Anterograde amnesia – loss of memory for events and periods of time following an injury or traumatic event.
Anticonvulsant – medication used to decrease the possibility of seizure activity.
Apathy – decrease in motivation, initiation, interest in life; indifference
Aphasia – loss in ability to speak coherent ideas or understand spoken language.
Apraxia – loss of ability to carry out habitual movement or acts that were previously automatic.
Ataxia – dysfunction in motor coordination and balance; results in jerky, unsteady movements of the arms and legs.
Attention – ability for sustaining focus on task for a period of time to allow for coding and storing of information in memory.
Brainstem –stem like part of the brain where it connects to the spinal cord. Controls those neurological functions necessary for survival (breathing, heart rate) and arousal (being awake and alert).
Cerebellum – the portion of the brain (located at the back), which helps control movement, balance and coordination.
Cognition – process of thinking, understanding, and reasoning.
Cognitive Rehabilitation – therapy programs, which assist in the management of specific problems in thinking and perception. Skills are practiced and strategies taught to improve function and/or compensate for remaining deficits.
Coma – state of unconsciousness from which person cannot be aroused by external stimuli.
Concussion – common result of a blow to the head usually causing unconsciousness, either temporary or prolonged.
Diffuse Brain Injury – injury to cells in many areas of the brain rather than one specific location.
Disorientation – disturbance in recognition of person, place, and/or time and day.
Dysarthria – disruption or dysfunction in speech articulation because of weakness of muscles used in speaking.
Dysphagia – swallowing disorders
Emotional labiality – intense fluctuations of emotions in response to experiences.
Expressive aphasia – inability to express oneself in words.
Frontal Lobe – front part of the brain, involved in planning, organizing, problem solving, selective attention, personality, and higher cognitive functions.
Frustration tolerance – amount and degree of frustration with obstacles one can live with before losing control over emotions and thinking.
Glasgow Coma Scale – standardized system used to assess the degree of brain impairment. It evaluates three areas: eye opening, verbal responses, and motor responses – all of which are evaluated independently according to a numerical value.
Hemiplegia - paralysis of one side of the body as a result of injury to neutrons carrying signals to muscles from the motor areas of the brain.
Inflexibility – rigidity in thinking, over-reliance on stereotypes; difficulty in recognizing alternative possibilities.
Judgement – ability for resolving dilemmas and approaching problems
Memory - stored recollections about experiences, events, feelings, dates, etc., from the recent and distant past.
Parietal Lobe – one of the two parietal lobes of the brain located behind the frontal lobe at the top of the brain. Involved in sense of touch, differentiation of size, shape, color, spatial perception and visual perception.
Perseveration – over-reliance on or repetition of a specific response or behavior to different tasks.
Post-traumatic amnesia – loss in memory for events related to a traumatic event and the period immediately following the trauma.
Problem-solving - skills for employing reasoning, judgment, and discernment in resolving problems.
Receptive aphasia – inability to comprehend verbal information.
Retrograde amnesia – loss of memory for events and periods of time before an injury or accident.
Seizure – an uncontrolled discharge of nerve cells that may spread to other cells nearby or throughout the entire brain. It usually lasts only a few minutes.
Shunt – a procedure to draw off excessive fluid in the brain.
Temporal Lobes – located one on each side of the brain at about the level of the ears. These lobes allow a person to tell one smell from another and one sound from another.
