Neurologic Rehabilitation: Neuroscience and Neuroplasticity Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering basic neuroanatomy, cellular signaling, somatosensory and motor systems, special senses, cognitive functions, and neuroplasticity mechanisms.

Rostral

A directional term meaning toward the nose.

Caudal

A directional term meaning toward the tail, or in humans, toward the coccygeal segments.

Gray matter

Tissue composed of neurons (information-processing cells), glial cells, incoming axons/synapses, and outgoing axons.

White matter

Tissue composed of axons and the fatty insulating substance called myelin, along with glial cells.

Myelin

A covering of neurons that facilitates neural propagation; made by Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system and oligodendrocytes in the central nervous system.

Action potential

A sequence of voltage changes where the cell membrane potential rises rapidly and then falls to return to rest; considered an all-or-none phenomenon.

Resting membrane potential

The voltage across the cell membrane when a neuron is not making an action potential or being excited/inhibited, typically about $-65\,mV$.

Electrochemical gradient

The combined influence of the concentration gradient and the electrical (voltage) gradient that determines ion flow.

Synapse

The place where information exchange occurs between neurons.

Dendritic tree

The structure of processes resembling a tree arbor that emanates from the cell body and typically receives information.

Soma

The main part of the neuron's cell body and its metabolic center, which integrates electrical input.

Axon hillock

The site where the axon emerges from the soma and where the action potential is typically initiated.

Node of Ranvier

A gap between myelin sheaths along an axon where ion channels are concentrated to permit the re-creation of action potentials.

Saltatory conduction

The method of nerve conduction where the impulse jumps from one node of Ranvier to the next, facilitating faster speed.

Ionotropic receptor

A type of ligand-gated ion channel that opens or closes to allow ion flow based on chemical binding.

Metabotropic receptor

A receptor that influences the postsynaptic neuron through intracellular domains and biochemical pathways rather than acting as a direct ion channel.

Dermatome

The area of the skin innervated by a single spinal nerve.

Proprioception

The comprehensive ability to sense muscle tension, limb/body position, movement (kinesthesia), movement effort, and balance.

Muscle spindles

Encapsulated sensory receptors in striated skeletomotor muscle that respond to changes in muscle length.

Golgi tendon organ (GTO)

A sensory receptor located in the tendon near the muscle junction that monitors muscle tension.

Motor unit

The functional unit comprised of one alpha motoneuron and all the specific muscle cells it innervates.

Size principle

The biological rule stating that the nervous system recruits smaller motoneurons for low-level effort before larger motoneurons.

Central Pattern Generator (CPG)

A reverberating neural circuit in the spinal cord that includes inhibitory interneurons to produce rhythmic motor patterns like locomotion.

Corticospinal system

A group of axons with cell bodies in the cerebral cortex and terminals in the spinal cord, critical for skilled voluntary movement.

Basal Ganglia

A set of subcortical nuclei involved in reward-based motor learning, selection of actions, and switching between thoughts or tasks.

Cerebellum

The 'little brain' responsible for coordination, adjustment of motor performance, and motor learning.

Fovea

The central portion of the retina's macula with the highest density of cone receptors.

Vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR)

A reflex that stabilizes images on the retina during head movement by producing eye movements in the opposite direction of the head rotation.

Nystagmus

Involuntary, rapid, rhythmic eye movements characterized by a slow phase in one direction and a fast phase in the other.

Executive function (EF)

An umbrella term for the ability to respond appropriately to changing circumstances, including attention, working memory, and inhibition.

Declarative memory

Explicit memory for facts (semantic) and personal experiences (episodic) that can be consciously recalled.

Nondeclarative memory

Implicit or procedural memory for skills and habits learned through practice without conscious awareness.

Aphasia

Impaired speech or language, often classified as fluent (receptive) or non-fluent (expressive).

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

A long-lasting increase in synaptic strength through increased responsiveness of a synapse to a stimulus.

Neurogenesis

The development of new neurons from neural stem cells.

Gliogenesis

The development of new glial cells.

Apoptosis

Active, programmed cell death initiated to preserve the system or during development.

Autophagy

A natural process where a cell eliminates damaged proteins or organelles to maintain homeostasis.

Angiogenesis

The formation of new blood vessels, typically in capillary beds, to meet metabolic demands.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)

A structural imaging technique that measures the consistency of water diffusion (fractional anisotropy) to visualize white matter tracts.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

An imaging method that captures the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal to map active neural networks.

Cognitive reserve

The complexity of neural networks built over a lifetime that may support recovery following central nervous system injury.