Brain Plasticity, The Divided Brain, and Consciousness Vocabulary

Key vocabulary flashcards covering neuroplasticity, neurogenesis, split-brain research, lateralization, consciousness, cognitive neuroscience, dual processing, and blindsight.

Neuroplasticity

The brain's ability to reorganize itself in response to damage or experience by building new pathways and migrating functions to different brain regions.

Neurogenesis

The process by which the brain produces new neurons.

Stem cells

Unspecialized cells discovered in the human embryo that can develop into any type of brain cell.

Lateralization

The functional specialization of the brain's left and right hemispheres.

Corpus callosum

The wide band of axon fibers connecting the left and right cerebral hemispheres and carrying messages between them.

Split brains

A condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's two hemispheres by severing the corpus callosum.

Left hemisphere

The brain hemisphere responsible for verbal tasks, including speech, reading, writing, arithmetic reasoning, and quick, literal interpretations of language.

Right hemisphere

The brain hemisphere that excels at visual perception, making inferences, modulating speech clarity, and orchestrating self-awareness.

Consciousness

Our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment.

Cognitive neuroscience

The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with our mental processes.

Dual processing

The principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious, deliberate ('high road') and unconscious, automatic ('low road') tracks.

Blindsight

A condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it.