- Defensive reflex - the body's reaction to painful and destructive influences. In terms of its biological significance, the defensive reflex belongs to the protective reflexes and is one of the basic unconditioned reflexes.
- Reverse afferentation - the process of correcting behavior based on information received by the brain from outside about the results of ongoing activity.
- Situational afferentation - information about the external environment
- Feedback - the process of correcting behavior based on the reverse afferentation received by the brain - information from outside about the results of ongoing activity.
- General adaptation syndrome (GAS) - the totality of the body's adaptive reactions to adverse influences (stressors) that are considerable in strength and duration. This term was proposed in 1936 by H. Selye. Three stages are distinguished in the development of GAS: I - the alarm stage; II - the resistance stage; III - the exhaustion stage.
- Common final pathway - a principle of the organization of an effector response, based on the ability of various nerve-impulse conduction pathways to form synaptic contacts on a single effector (muscle, gland). The principle of the common final pathway manifests itself in that one and the same final response can arise upon stimulation of different brain structures; it was introduced into physiology by C. Sherrington.
- Occlusion - the interaction of two impulse flows with each other. The essence of occlusion lies in the mutual inhibition of reflex reactions, as a result of which the total effect turns out to be significantly less than the sum of the interacting reactions.
- Occipital - relating to the back of the head.
- Oligodendrogliocyte - a neuroglial cell with a small number of processes, surrounding the body of a neuron; it takes part in the neuron's metabolism. Ontogenesis - the individual development of an organism from the moment of conception to death.
- Operationalization - the transformation of abstract concepts into concrete phenomena accessible to experimental study and quantitative measurement.
- Orienting reaction - (reflex) - a type of unconditioned reflex evoked by any unexpected change in a situation.
- Voice oscillogram - a graphic representation of the dynamics of sound over time.
- Paleocortex - the ancient cortex of the cerebral hemispheres.
- Parabiosis - a decrease in the excitability and conductivity of nervous tissue resulting from its excessive stimulation.
- Scientific paradigm - a set of models and value orientations, norms and rules that determine the main directions of scientific research in a specific historical period.
- Paramnesia - a memory disorder in which false or distorted memories arise, and a mixing of present and past, real and imaginary, occurs.
- Parapsychology - an area of psychological research studying the forms and means by which a person receives information that are not associated with the activity of known sense organs. To date, all paranormal phenomena have no regular explanation within the framework of existing scientific paradigms.
- Parasympathetic nervous system - part of the autonomic nervous system involved in regulating the activity of internal organs, ensuring the processes of resource restoration and anabolism.
- Parallelism – a methodological position denying the interaction of the psyche and the brain
- Paraphasia - a disorder of speech utterance manifested in the incorrect use of individual sounds (letters) or words in oral or written speech.
- Paresthesia - a spontaneously arising unpleasant sensation of numbness, tingling, burning, crawling, etc.
- Parenchyma - the specific tissue of an organ that performs the organ's main function, as distinct from the organ's connective tissue, which performs a supporting function.
- Paroxysmal - manifesting in the form of attacks.
- Partial - particular, separate.
- Pattern - "design", structure, form, the spatial or temporal distribution of stimuli, processes, etc.
- Pacemaker - a rhythm driver; a single neuron and/or a neural network responsible for generating a rhythm of a particular frequency.
- Pacemaker potentials - potentials of a nerve cell arising as a result of spontaneous or evoked autorhythmic activity, close to sinusoidal oscillations with a frequency of 0.1-10 Hz and an amplitude of 3-10 mV.
- Perversion - a distortion, a pathological deviation from the norm.
- Nodes of Ranvier - small sections of a myelinated axon that lack myelin and recur at regular intervals.
- Perinatal - relating to the period immediately after birth or to birth itself.
- First signal system - a system of conditioned-reflex connections formed in the cerebral cortex of animals and humans under the action, on the receptors of the sense organs, of stimuli originating from the external and internal environment.
- Forebrain - the anterior part of the brain, consisting of two hemispheres. It includes the gray matter of the cortex, subcortical nuclei, and the nerve fibers forming the white matter.
- Perseveration - a disruption of an action plan associated with the patient continually repeating some action. An involuntary, obtrusive repetition or reproduction of some action, movement, idea, thought, melody, or experience that occurs against conscious intention.
- Pyramidal tracts - the most important descending system of the brain, appearing in primates and reaching its greatest development in humans; the pyramidal tracts originate from the pyramidal neurons of the motor zone of the cortex and are directed to the motoneurons of the spinal cord, connecting with them via interneurons. The pyramidal tracts provide the regulation of all complex voluntary movements.
- Plasticity - 1) a fundamental property of a neuron, manifested in relatively stable modifications of its responses; 2) the capacity of nervous elements and structures to restructure their functional properties under the influence of prolonged external effects and in various types of damage to nervous tissue.
- Plethysmograph - a device for recording changes in the volume of organs (a finger, a limb, the auricle, etc.) that depend on vascular blood filling.
- Plethysmography - a method of studying the local blood filling of peripheral vessels, allowing one to judge the level of activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.
- Pneumography - the recording of the chest's respiratory movements by a special device, a pneumograph, which, based on changes in sensor resistance during inhalation, exhalation, and various amplitudes of breathing, makes it possible to study the character of the subject's respiratory movements and, on this basis, his or her functional and mental states.
- Mobility - one of the properties of the nervous system, manifested in the capacity for rapid alteration of the signal value of external stimuli.
- Subcortex (subcortical brain structures) - the part of the brain located between the cerebral cortex and the medulla oblongata. It includes: the optic thalami, the hypothalamus, the limbic system and other nerve ganglia, the reticular formation, and the thalamus.
- Subcortical functions - the totality of physiological processes associated with the activity of individual subcortical brain structures or with their system as a whole. Subcortical functions exert an activating influence on the activity of the cerebral cortex.
- Late components of the evoked potential - a generalized name for the components of evoked and event-related brain potentials that are recorded later than 100 ms after the moment of stimulation. Late components are endogenous in nature and generally reflect the processes of semantic processing of information and the evaluation of the subjective significance of the stimulus.
- Positron emission tomography - a method for revealing the distribution, within the structure of the brain, of various chemical substances taking part in the brain's metabolic activity. Polygraph - a device that allows the simultaneous recording of a number of physiological functions: the electroencephalogram, electromyogram, electrocardiogram, electrooculogram, the electrodermal (galvanic skin) response, respiratory rate, and others; it is used for a comprehensive assessment of the functional state of the organism.
- Threshold - 1) the critical value of the membrane potential, the depolarization at which an impulse arises; 2) the minimal intensity of stimulation sufficient to evoke a sensation.
- Threshold of perception - the minimal intensity of stimulation sufficient for a sensation to arise.
- Threshold for generation of the action potential - the critical level of neuronal depolarization at which a rapid discharge arises.
- Postsynaptic - a process occurring at the postsynaptic membrane.
- Postsynaptic potential (PSP) - a local depolarization or hyperpolarization of the membrane caused by the action of a neurotransmitter. PSPs can be excitatory (EPSPs) and inhibitory (IPSPs). The amplitude of a PSP can reach 20 mV.
- Postnatal - occurring after birth.
- Action potential - a change in the membrane potential that arises upon excitation of nerve fibers, by means of which information is transmitted in the body of humans and animals. The occurrence of the action potential is based on rapidly reversible changes in the permeability of the cell membrane.
- Resting potential - the stable potential difference of a resting cell (neuron) between its internal content and the extracellular medium; it arises as a result of the asymmetric distribution of ions on either side of the cell membrane. On the basis of the neuronal resting potential, excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials, as well as the action potential, are formed.
- Event-related potential (ERP) - a type of evoked brain potential arising in response to a wide range of external influences.
- Potentiation - an increase in the amplitude of the postsynaptic potential given short intervals between action potentials arriving successively at the presynaptic terminal.
- Praxis - the ability to perform purposeful actions and movements.
- Parapraxia - a disruption of the action plan whereby the patient performs actions that only remotely resemble those intended.
- Prenatal (antenatal) - preceding birth, relating to the intrauterine phase of development.
- Preformism - the doctrine that material structures exist in an organism's germ cells that predetermine the development of the embryo and the traits of the organism formed from them.
- Habituation - a weakening of the response (up to its complete cessation) to a particular stimulus upon its repeated presentation.
- Progeria - a disease characterized by premature aging together with dwarfism; caused by pathology of the midbrain and the endocrine glands.
- Medulla oblongata - a continuation of the upper part of the spinal cord in which a number of vital brain centers are located, including the reticular formation.
- Proximal - situated closer to the center of the body.
- Proximodistal trend of development - a course of development in which growth and development proceed in the direction from the center of the body toward its periphery.
- Procreation (adj. - procreative) - the conception of offspring.
- Diencephalon - part of the brain stem; it includes the epithalamus, metathalamus, thalamus, and hypothalamus; it performs a wide range of functions, from processing sensory information to regulating homeostasis.
- Permeability - the ability of a membrane to allow substances to pass into and out of a cell.
- Proprioceptors - specialized sensory nerve endings that receive information about the position and movement of the body; they provide kinesthetic sensations.
- Proprioceptive - related to the excitation of proprioceptors.
- Processing negativity - one of the components of evoked brain potentials, directly related to the processing of stimulus parameters.
- Psycholepsy - a sudden drop in mental tone without clouding of consciousness, but with a brief cessation of thinking activity.
- Psychomotor activity - the totality of voluntary, consciously controlled motor actions.
- Psychoneuroimmunology - the science studying the influence of psychological factors and the functional state of the brain on the immune system.
- Psychosomatics - the field of science studying somatic diseases of psychogenic origin, in particular those caused by disturbances in the emotional sphere.
- Psychophysiology - the field of science studying the physiological foundations (mechanisms, regularities, and correlates) of mental activity and behavior.
- Psychophysical parallelism - a doctrine that regards mental and physiological phenomena as two independent parallel series, not dependent on one another.
- Puberty - the period of sexual maturation.
Lectures and tutorial on "Psychophysiology"
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