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amygdala plays a very important role in memory, especially emotional memory, and in emotional behavior.
Antidepressant medication
Currently, the most commonly used antidepressants are tricyclics (e.g., amitriptyline [Elavil]) and SSRIs (e.g., fluoxetine [Prozac]). All potentiate serotonin or block its elimination.
Aphasia
An impairment of language ability. It ranges from having difficulty in remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read, or write.
Association cortex
The part of the cortex that lies outside the primary (specific) sensory and motor areas. It is reciprocally connected with the associative nuclei of the thalamus. It consists of two major components: (a) the posterior association cortex of the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes (PTO cortex), and (b) the prefrontal cortex. Both association cortices are functionally involved in higher cognitive functions. That is, the first (a) is involved in the sensory-perceptual aspects of cognition – namely, attention, perception, memory, language, and intelligence; the second (b) is involved in the executive aspects of the same higher functions.
Associative thalamic nuclei
Thalamic nuclei that are reciprocally connected with association cortex. This excludes the specific nuclei, which relay sensory information to the cortex, and the nucleus reticularis, which is only connected with itself and with other nuclei, not the cortex. The association nuclei of the thalamus are deemed to be involved in the cognitive functions of the association cortex they are connected with.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
A childhood disorder, sometimes persistent into adolescence and adulthood, characterized by difficulty in concentrating attention and excessive motor activity. Because it commonly affects children in school age, the disorder impairs learning and behavior in the school as well as at home.
Autonomic nervous system
The part of the nervous system that controls visceral functions. It affects heart rate, digestion, respiration, salivation, perspiration, pupil diameter, urination, and sexual arousal.
Basal ganglia
Nuclear masses at the base of the brain (globus pallidus, caudate nucleus, substantia nigra) dedicated to the execution and coordination of movement in muscular-kinetic, cognitive, and emotional processes.
Behavioral economics
Deals with the effects of social, cognitive, and emotional factors on the economic decisions of individuals and institutions and the consequences for market prices, returns, and resource allocation.
Binding
The dynamic linkage of cortical assemblies by re-entry in an activated cognit. It is an inherent characteristic of all recurrent networks.
Biodrive
A biological drive, such as thirst or sex.
Broca’s area
An area of the left, inferior, frontal cortex important for the articulation of speech. Broca’s aphasia, which results from lesions of that area, is characterized by difficulty in the verbal expression of language.
Cell assembly
Conceptualized by Hebb as a small network of cortical nerve cells participating in the temporal retention of a certain sensory (e.g., visual) feature by some kind of reverberation within it. The concept is thus the precursor of that of the cognit or cognitive network, which is made of interconnected cell assemblies distributed in widespread cortical areas.
Cognit
A memory or item of knowledge in the form of a network of associated cortical neuron assemblies that represent the component elements of that memory or item of knowledge. Thus, cognits are networks that vary greatly in size, that are distributed over greatly variable expanses of association cortex, that share component nodes in common (component features), and that exhibit extensive nesting of small cognits within larger ones.
Cognitive functions
The functions of the mind, based in the cerebral cortex, which mediate the relations of the person with herself and the world around her. The principal cognitive functions are attention,