Strokes
The general name for a stroke caused by an occluded blood vessel within the brain.
Ischemic
In a movement injury, these are the initial and second sources of impact - where the brain collides with the skull and then ricochets backwards.
Coup & Contrecoup
When you are listening to Anne lecture in a very quiet and attentive class, but she goes on and on for what feels like forever.
Sustained Attention
Short Term Memory
The main structure for memory and learning within the brain, and it forms the medial wall of the inferior horn of the lateral ventricles.
Hippocampus
The only imaging technique that reveals fresh blood, and therefore is part of any hospital's stroke protocol.
CT / CAT scan
A pooling of blood, or bruising, occuring between the dura and the arachnoid mater.
Subdural Hematoma
When you are listening to Ruth Grossman talk about neuro on your laptop in a crowded coffee shop.
Selective Attention
In order to store long term, declarative memories, we need to repeatedly activate this sequence of structures within the limbic system.
Circuit of Papez
Regions of the brain involved in higher level processing and decision making. In this way, this region also allocates attention to stimuli or thoughts we believe are important to us.
Prefrontal cortices
An abnormal connection between arteries and veins, at risk of hemorrhaging.
AVM (arterio-venous malformation)
Another name for a mildTBI, often a movement injury, but without injury evidenced on imaging and symptoms that are transient.
Concussion
When sitting in neuro, listening to Anne, but also looking up to see what she is pointing to on the projector screen, and also typing notes on your own laptop.
Alternating Attention
Even though this is named as a type of memory, it's really more of a fleeting attention, sometimes even without conscious awareness.
Sensory Memory
It's name literally means "under the thalamus," and this relative small structure controls our autonomic responses (in addition to being involved in consolidating new memories)
Hypothalamus
tPA
Injuries that occur in the aftermath, or as a by-product, of an initial injury, and often complicate recovery, such as with Phineas Gage and the infection that developed in his brain about a week after the initial injury.
Secondary Sequelae
You walk into Neuro class and notice that the chairs are arranged in a different order.
Focused Attention
You wish that Neuro exams would have questions that allowed for this type of memory, such as multiple choice, because it's generally a little easier than coming up with the answer on your own, as long as you have consolidated the information already.
Recognition
A white matter band running through the basal ganglia, containing tracts for vision, motor, sensory, and memory.
Internal Capsule
An ischemic CVA differentiated from a thrombus because it the clot develops elsewhere in the body, breaks off, and then lodges in the brain.
Embolic Stroke
Injuries that occur in the white matter, often not easily detectable on brain imaging. These are characterized by twisting, sheering, and swelling of neurons, and lead to chemical changes within the brain.
Diffuse Axonal Injury
Your friends not in Neuro think that they can do this, but you know it's a myth: our brains can't actually attend to more than one thing in the same moment.
Divided Attention
This includes procedural, habitual, and perceptual memories - things that are finely engrained within us, but hard to talk about.
Implicit Memory
Literally meaning "black substance" in Latin, this structure is found in the midbrain and produces dopamine.
Substantia Nigra