Irritability - RNA, Glossary of Terms - Psychophysiology

Lecture

Irritability - a property of intracellular formations, cells, tissues, and organs to respond to the actions of factors of the external and internal environment by changing their structure and functions.
Amplitude of a biological rhythm's oscillations - the difference between the minimum and maximum values of an oscillating quantity.
Split brain - the brain of a human or animal after transection of the corpus callosum and the anterior commissure; the separation of the hemispheres creates conditions for their relatively isolated operation and makes it possible to study the contribution of each hemisphere to mental activity and behavior.
Readaptation - the process of the reverse adjustment of the structure and functions of the human or animal organism to environmental conditions, aimed at preserving the relative constancy of the organism's internal environment - homeostasis.
Reactivity - a property of a living system to reflect (respond to) influences of the external or internal environment.
Reverberation - the repeated passage of nerve impulse activity along one and the same pathway through the same synaptic contacts.
Regeneration - the restoration of destroyed or lost structural components, the renewal of tissues through cell division or intracellular reorganization.
Reductionism - the reduction of the complex to the simple and of the higher to the lower.
Resistance - the capacity to resist.
Recreation - literally: rest, entertainment.
Rheography - a method for studying the pulse fluctuations of blood filling in the vessels of various organs and tissues, as well as of the limbs and trunk as a whole, based on the graphic recording of changes in the total electrical resistance (impedance) of tissues.
Rheoencephalography - an indirect method of studying intracranial blood circulation, based on measuring the total resistance of brain tissue when a medium- or high-frequency current is passed through it.
Respiratory - pertaining to breathing.
Restitution - all types of recovery of a damaged organism.
Retardation - a slowing of development.
Reticular formation - a netlike formation, a collection of nervous structures located in the central divisions of the brainstem (in the medulla oblongata, midbrain, and diencephalon). In the region of the reticular formation, interaction takes place between the incoming ascending - afferent - and descending - efferent - impulses.
Retina - the retinal membrane of the eye.
Retinal - located on the retina.
Receptive field - a peripheral area whose stimulation influences the discharge of a given neuron; for example, for neurons of the visual pathway the receptive field is the area of the retina whose illumination affects the neuron's activity.
Reflex - a response of the organism, mediated by the central nervous system, to the stimulation of receptors by agents of the internal and external environment.
Reflex arc - the collection of nervous formations involved in carrying out a reflex. It consists of a receptor, an afferent nerve, a central part, an efferent nerve, and an effector (muscle or gland).
Refractory period - a certain period after the occurrence of an action potential, during which the next stimulus cannot elicit an impulse.
Receptors - the terminal formations of afferent nerve fibers that perceive stimuli from the external (exteroceptors) or internal (interoceptors) environment of the organism and convert the energy of stimuli (light, sound, and others) into excitation transmitted to the analyzer zones of the cerebral cortex; specialized types of receptors are distinguished: those sensitive to chemical stimuli - chemoreceptors, to temperature fluctuations - thermoreceptors, to light - photoreceptors, to changes in pressure - mechanoreceptors.
Reception - the process of the physiological reflection of physical stimuli in a receptor, the conversion of various types of stimulation into a nerve signal. The occurrence of an action potential, during which the next stimulus cannot elicit an impulse.
Reciprocal innervation - connections between neurons organized in such a way that the same pathways through which the excitation of one muscle group is carried out also provide inhibition of the motoneurons that control the antagonist muscles.
Rigidity - inflexibility, unyieldingness, difficulty (up to complete inability) in changing a program of activity planned by the subject under conditions that objectively require its restructuring. Cognitive, affective, and motivational rigidity are distinguished.
Rhythm of the brain's electrical activity - a collective name for various patterns of spontaneous EEG, representing series of successive waves of the same type; rhythms differ in the duration of their constituent waves, frequency, amplitude, origin, and functional significance.
RNA - ribonucleic acid. Found both in the cell nucleus and in the cytoplasm; one of its forms - messenger (matrix) RNA - serves as the carrier of genetic information received from DNA, and by means of this information controls the synthesis of proteins.