Neuropsychology & Neurobiology – Core Vocabulary

A comprehensive set of key vocabulary terms covering neuropsychological concepts, brain injury mechanisms, neuroimaging, cortical functions, neurocognitive disorders, and language-related syndromes discussed throughout the lecture.

Neuropsychology

Interdisciplinary branch of psychology that studies brain–behavior relationships, especially how brain lesions or dysfunctions affect cognition, emotion and personality.

Brain Lesion

Permanent, structural destruction of brain tissue that produces lasting deficits.

Brain Dysfunction

Functional impairment of the brain without visible structural damage; often reversible (e.g., epileptic activity, neurochemical imbalance).

Negative Symptom

Loss, reduction or absence of a normal psychological function (e.g., amnesia, akinesia).

Positive Symptom

Excess or addition to normal behavior, often compensatory (e.g., confabulations, perseverations).

Localizationism

Theory (Gall, Broca) positing that specific cognitive functions are confined to discrete brain areas.

Antilocalizationism

View that cognitive functions are diffusely represented; mass of damaged tissue, not exact site, predicts impairment (Lashley).

Diaschiza

Temporary functional depression of brain areas anatomically connected to a lesion despite being structurally intact.

Disconnection (Dyskoneksja)

Loss of function in intact cortical regions due to severed white-matter pathways linking them.

Coup Injury

Brain contusion located beneath the site of impact.

Contrecoup Injury

Brain contusion on the side opposite to the impact due to rebound forces.

Diffuse Axonal Injury

Widespread shearing of axons after rapid acceleration–deceleration head trauma.

Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)

15-point scale quantifying level of consciousness by eye, verbal and motor responses; ≤8 indicates coma.

Post-Traumatic Amnesia (PTA)

Time between injury and restoration of continuous memory; key predictor of cognitive outcome.

Retrograde Amnesia

Inability to recall information acquired before a brain insult.

Anterograde Amnesia

Inability to encode or store new memories after a brain insult.

Primary Brain Tumor

Neoplasm originating within CNS tissue (e.g., glioma, meningioma).

Secondary (Metastatic) Brain Tumor

Intracranial mass formed by cancer cells spread from extracranial organs (e.g., lung, breast).

Ischemic Stroke

Focal neurological deficit >24 h caused by cerebral blood-flow interruption (thrombus or embolus).

Penumbra

Hypoperfused but potentially salvageable tissue surrounding the core of an ischemic stroke.

Aneurysm

Weak, bulging segment of arterial wall prone to rupture and subarachnoid hemorrhage.

3 Tesla MRI

High-field magnetic resonance scanner providing high-resolution anatomical brain images.

fMRI (BOLD)

Functional MRI technique measuring blood-oxygen-level-dependent signals to map neural activity.

PET Scan

Positron Emission Tomography; images cerebral metabolism using radiolabeled tracers (e.g., 2-DG).

MRS

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; non-invasive measurement of brain metabolites (e.g., NAA, choline).

EEG

Electroencephalography; records spontaneous cortical electrical activity via scalp electrodes.

ERP

Event-Related Potential; averaged EEG response time-locked to sensory or cognitive events.

MEG

Magnetoencephalography; detects magnetic fields generated by neuronal currents with high temporal precision.

Alpha Waves

8-13 Hz EEG rhythm dominant in relaxed wakefulness with eyes closed.

Frontal Lobes

Anterior cerebral lobes essential for executive, motor, motivational and social functions.

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC)

Lateral surface area mediating working memory, planning, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control.

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC)

Orbitofrontal/medial region involved in emotion regulation, reward valuation and social decision-making.

Working Memory

Limited-capacity system for temporarily holding and manipulating information for ongoing tasks.

Executive Functions

High-level processes allowing goal-directed behavior: planning, set-shifting, inhibition, monitoring.

Perseveration

Pathological repetition of responses or thoughts despite cessation of stimulus or task shift.

Confabulation

Fabricated or distorted memories produced without intent to deceive, common in frontal damage.

Phineas Gage

Historic case demonstrating personality change after vmPFC destruction by tamping-iron injury.

Akinetic Mutism

Severe reduction of speech and movement with apparent alertness; often after bilateral frontal or cingulate lesions.

Prosopagnosia

Inability to recognize familiar faces despite intact visual acuity; linked to fusiform gyrus damage.

Temporal Lobes

Lobes housing auditory cortex, hippocampus and structures for language, memory and emotion.

Primary Auditory Cortex (A1)

Heschl’s gyri; tonotopically organized region receiving thalamic auditory input.

Wernicke’s Area

Posterior superior temporal gyrus region critical for language comprehension.

Superior Temporal Sulcus

Multimodal association area processing speech, biological motion and social cues.

Dorsal Visual Stream

Occipito-parietal ‘where’ pathway analyzing spatial location and motion.

Ventral Visual Stream

Occipito-temporal ‘what’ pathway processing object form and identity.

Amusia

Deficit in music perception or production, often after right temporal damage.

Klüver-Bucy Syndrome

Behavioral changes (hyperorality, hypersexuality, docility) after bilateral temporal lobe damage.

Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL)

Hippocampus-centered region necessary for encoding episodic memories.

H.M.

Patient with bilateral MTL resection; revealed dissociation between declarative memory and procedural learning.

Anomia

Difficulty retrieving object names despite intact comprehension and recognition.

Apraxia

Inability to perform purposeful movements despite intact motor and sensory systems.

Agnosia

Failure to recognize objects despite intact sensory processing (e.g., visual agnosia).

Astereognosis

Inability to identify objects by touch despite intact tactile sensation.

Simultanagnosia

Inability to perceive more than one object at a time; component of Balint’s syndrome.

Neglect Syndrome

Failure to attend to stimuli on the side opposite a parietal lesion, usually right hemisphere.

Parietal Lobes

Regions integrating somatosensory, spatial and visuomotor information.

Gerstmann Syndrome

Tetrad of finger agnosia, left-right disorientation, agraphia and acalculia from left parietal damage.

Ideomotor Apraxia

Impaired ability to pantomime tool use on command despite comprehension and strength.

Constructional Apraxia

Difficulty copying or constructing spatial figures due to parietal or frontal damage.

Occipital Lobes

Posterior lobes harboring primary and association visual cortex.

Cortical Blindness

Loss of vision from bilateral V1 lesions with preserved pupillary reflexes.

Blindsight

Residual visual abilities without conscious awareness following V1 damage.

Achromatopsia

Central loss of color perception from ventral occipital/lingual gyrus lesion.

Visual Agnosia

Inability to recognize objects visually despite normal acuity; can be apperceptive or associative.

Beta-Amyloid Plaques

Extracellular protein deposits characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease pathology.

Neurofibrillary Tangles

Intracellular aggregates of hyperphosphorylated tau protein in Alzheimer’s disease.

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)

Measurable cognitive decline greater than expected for age but not interfering with daily living; risk state for dementia.

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)

Progressive neurodegenerative disorder with early episodic memory loss and cortical atrophy.

Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)

Group of disorders causing early behavioral or language decline due to frontal/temporal degeneration.

Behavioral Variant FTD

Subtype marked by disinhibition, apathy, compulsions and loss of empathy.

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)

FTD variant with gradual language deterioration; nonfluent, semantic or logopenic subtypes.

Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB)

Dementia featuring fluctuating cognition, visual hallucinations and parkinsonism due to cortical α-synuclein inclusions.

Parkinson’s Disease Dementia (PDD)

Cognitive decline developing after established idiopathic Parkinson’s disease.

Vascular Dementia (VaD)

Cognitive impairment resulting from cerebrovascular disease and multiple infarcts.

Binswanger Disease

Subcortical ischemic vascular dementia with extensive white-matter lesions.

Normal-Pressure Hydrocephalus

Triad of gait disturbance, urinary incontinence and dementia with enlarged ventricles but normal CSF pressure.

Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease

Rapidly progressive prion dementia with myoclonus and periodic EEG discharges.

Korsakoff Syndrome

Severe anterograde amnesia with confabulation after thiamine deficiency and alcoholism.

Aphasia

Acquired language disorder from brain damage affecting comprehension and/or production.

Broca’s Aphasia

Nonfluent speech with intact comprehension from left inferior frontal lesion.

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Fluent but meaningless speech and poor comprehension from posterior temporal lesion.

Conduction Aphasia

Impaired repetition with fluent speech and good comprehension from arcuate fasciculus lesion.

Transcortical Motor Aphasia

Nonfluent speech with good repetition due to frontal lesion sparing perisylvian cortex.

Transcortical Sensory Aphasia

Fluent speech with poor comprehension but preserved repetition from temporo-occipital lesion.

Global Aphasia

Severe impairment of all language modalities from large left MCA infarct.

Aprosodia

Loss of affective or linguistic prosody, often after right hemisphere damage.

Echolalia

Pathological repetition of another’s words, seen in aphasia, autism, or schizophrenia.

Perseverative Speech

Continuous repetition of words or phrases inappropriate to context, typical in frontal lesions.

Agrafia

Acquired impairment of writing ability.

Alexia

Acquired reading disorder (pure alexia when isolated from agraphia).

Acalculia

Acquired inability to perform arithmetic operations.

Delirium

Acute confusional state with fluctuating attention and cognition, reversible with treatment of cause.

Cholinesterase Inhibitors

Drugs (e.g., donepezil, rivastigmine) that enhance synaptic acetylcholine, used in mild-to-moderate AD.

NMDA Receptor Antagonist

Memantine; reduces excitotoxicity, used in moderate-to-severe Alzheimer’s disease.

Neural Plasticity

Brain’s ability to reorganize structure and function in response to experience or injury.

Working-Age Dementia

Dementia with onset before age 65 (young-onset dementia).

N-Back Task

Working-memory test sensitive to DLPFC integrity.

Token Test

Comprehension screening tool sensitive to subtle receptive aphasia.

Glasgow Outcome Scale

5-point scale rating disability after brain injury from death to good recovery.

Balint’s Syndrome

Triad of simultanagnosia, ocular apraxia and optic ataxia from bilateral parietal lesions.