Neuroglossary
Terms used in brain injury, spinal cord injury and other neurotrauma treatment and rehabilitation
F (F-response - funiculi)
F-response - The foot response, one of two parts of late responses, which indicate how fast the messages go to the spinal cord and back.
facet - Small, smooth flat surfaces on a hard body, as on a bone, especially where it articulates with another bone. Articular facets of a vertebra are covered with hyaline cartilage.
facet block - Regional anesthesia to the facet. It is done under radiographic control, with the injection being placed in the facet area. It relieves pain in the lower back caused by osteoarthritis of the spine.
facetectomy - Cutting away of the facet of a vertebra.
facet joint or articular facet - Small flat surfaces (two on each side of a vertebra) on the bones where one vertebra meets with the one above and the one below. They are also zygapophyseal joints and diarthrodial joints.
facial nerve - Cranial Nerve VII, which has motor and sensory components; motor component governs muscles of facial expression; some taste fibers and salivary gland nerve fibers course within the facial nerve.
factitious disorder - A condition wherein physical or psychological symptoms are produced voluntarily, often resulting in multiple hospitalizations, but which, unlike malingering, has no rationally comprehended goal.
fascia - Sheet or band of fibrous tissue such as lies deep to the skin sometimes being the place where muscles and various organs of the body attach.
fascicle - A bundle of nerve or muscle fibers.
fasciculi - Bundles of fibers divided into tracts within each funiculus in the white matter of the spinal cord.
femoral nerve - This general sensory and motor nerve originates in the lumbar plexus, L2-L4, and descends behind the inguinal ligament to the femoral triangle. Its branches are the saphenous nerve and the muscular and anterior cutaneous rami. It distributes to the skin of the thigh and leg, the muscles of the front of the thigh, and the hip and knee joints.
fibrin - Insoluble protein formed from fibrinogen by the proteolytic action of thrombin during normal clotting of blood. Fibrin forms the essential portion of the blood clot.
fibrinogen - Substance in the blood essential for the clotting process and, thus, to the maintenance of normal homeostatis. A high-molecular-weight plasma protein, Factor I, is converted to fibrin through the action of thrombin.
fibrinolysis - Dissolution of fibrin by enzymatic action.
fibroblasts - The most common connective tissue cells, forming the fibrous tissues in the body, the tendons, and aponeuroses, supporting and binding tissues of all sorts. They modify into chrondroblasts, collagenblasts, and osteoblasts. They are the only cells found in tendons. They synthesize matrix materials and are considered to be secretory; assist in wound-healing. Also called fibrocytes and desmocytes.
fibrocartilage - In nonsynovial joints, one of three types of connective tissue that joins the involved bones. Fibrocartilage (symphyses secondary cartilaginous joints) is found in the intervertebral discs with a fluid-filled central cavity, and in the pubis, the front arch of the pelvis, with a hollow central cavity.
fibrocytes - Fibroblasts.
fibromyalgia - A syndrome that affects the connective tissues and muscles throughout the body. A common form of chronic, generalized muscular pain and fatigue.
fibrosis - The formation of fibrous tissue; fibroid or fibrous degeneration.
fribrositis - Inflammatory hyperplasia of the white fibrous tissue of the body, especially of the muscle sheaths and the facial layers of the locomotor systems. It is marked by pain and stiffness.
fibrous capsule - A structure enclosing fibers in a synovial joint. The capsule inserts into the moving bones at some distance from the hyaline cartilage, and on the inner side of the capsule is the synovium, a specialized connective tissue layer.
fibrous connective tissue - Tissue that is frequently used by the body as supportive tissue. Besides that function it is involved in the storage of body materials, transporting them when needed, for instance, in the repair of a wound. Fibrous connective tissue contains fibers, ground substance, and extracellular fluid.
fibrous joints - Joints as classified by structure, with no joint cavity and with fibrous connective tissue uniting the bones. They are joined together tightly and are generally immovable (synarthrosis). Three types are recognized: stures, syndesmoses, and gomphoses. See cartilaginous and synovial joints.
filum terminale - Nonneural fibrous filament extending at or near the tail from the lowermost end of the spinal cord (conus terminalis). It is attached to the coccyx.
fissure - A cleft or groove, normal or otherwise. When one occurs in the pars interarticularis, the yoke of bone connecting the right and left facets, the condition is known as spondylolysis. When discs become old, less firm and less elastic, they begin to tear and create fissures in parts of the disc, through which the nucleus can seep out and cause problems.
flexion - Inward movements of body parts toward the center of the body (bending).
flexion-distraction injury - Injury where the flexion axis is posterior to the anterior longitudinal ligament and there is compressive failure of the anterior column, while the middle and posterior columns fail in tension. The posterior longitudinal ligament is torn, and if the facet joint capsules are disrupted, there may be subluxation or dislocation or fracture of the facets.
flexion-rotation injury - An injury that involves some measure of rotation. For example, a hard right hook to the jaw is the mechanism to the neck in the flexion-rotation injury.
fluent asphasia - A language disorder characterized by clear articulation and normal rhythm but long phrases of nonsense, incorrect words or sounds, and circumlocution.
Foley catheter - A catheter is a tubular, flexible surgical instrument for withdrawing fluids from or introducing fluids into a cavity of the body, especially one for introduction into the bladder through the urethra for the withdrawal of urine. A Foley catheter is an indwelling catheter retained in the bladder by a balloon that may be inflated with air or liquid.
foramen - Natural opening or passage; a general term for such a passage, especially one into or through a bone; a notch bridged by a ligament or bone, opening into a pit or a canal that has an orifice at each end. In the spine foramina open out of the spinal canal through the vertebral bodies allowing the passage of nerves (vertebral foramina).
foramen magnum - Large opening in the front and lower part of the occipital bone that connects the vertebral canal and cranial cavity.
foraminal - The anatomic capacity within the limits of the pedicles above and below, the articular processes toward the back, the vertebral body in the front, and the sagittal planes that connect the middle and side aspects of two adjoining pedicles. Even though foraminal means the same as lateral and far-lateral, the terms foraminal and extra-foraminal are preferred, as they are more specific.
foraminotomy - The operation of removing the roof of intervertebral foramina, done to relieve nerve root compression.
fossa - Long, shallow hollows or depressed areas in bones.
fracture - The breaking of a part, especially the breaking or rupture of a bone.
free fragment - Occurs when the disc material from a herniation is no longer in an uninterrupted flow with the disc from which it came. Free fragment, sequestered disc, sequestrum, and canal mouse are also used in this context. The disc material is found at varying distances from the original level, having broken through its annulus fibrosus. It can be found in the space between the annulus and the posterior longitudinal ligament, between the PLL and the dura, or, rarely, within the dural sac. The herniation is usually large, and usually migrates in an upward course when it is a foraminal herniation or downward when the annular tear is central or paracentral.
frontal lobe - The most anterior area of the cerebrum. Regulates and mediates the ﾓhigherﾔ intellectual functions and has intricate connections to other areas of the brain including deeper structures such as the limbic system.
fulcrum - The support on which a level pivots.
funiculi - Three pairs of columns of myelinated fibers that run the length of the white matter of the spinal cord.
