Neuroglossary
Terms used in brain injury, spinal cord injury and other neurotrauma treatment and rehabilitation
Gadolinium-DTP - The most common dye agent used to enhance the image of a defect, if the diagnosis is a scar.
gait - The particular manner of walking (e.g., ataxic, scissor, etc.). Used in diagnosing underlying conditions and in devising interventions.
ganglion - General term for a group of nerve cell bodies located outside the central nervous system, in a knotlike mass.
Ganser syndrome - A form of factitious disorder involving the voluntary production of severe psychological and pseudocognitive symptoms, often of psychotic proportions.
general senses - The senses of touch-pressure, heat, cold, pain, and body position. Also called somatic senses.
genesis - The beginning of anything; the origin or process of originating.
Gerstmannﾒs syndrome - A brain disorder consisting of right-left confusion, inability to calculate or write, and an inability to name the different fingers of each hand due to parietal lobe lesion
Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) - A rating scale devised by Teasdale and Jennett to assess the level of consciousness following brain damage. The scale assesses eye, verbal and motor responses. The GCS is grade 1-15, the lower score indicating the greater neurologic impairment.
gliding - Multiaxial movement of bone (about three axes), on essentially flat articular surfaces; simple movement within narrow limits, as between articular processes of vertebrae.
glio- - Combining form denting relationship to a gluey substance or specifically to the neuroglia.
gliofibrillary - Pertaining to fibrils of the neuroglia.
gliosis - An excess of astroglia in damaged areas of the central nervous system.
global asphasia - Loss of all language function.
glossopharyngeal nerve - Cranial nerve IX, a sensory-motor nerve supplying sensation into pharynx and posterior tongue and supplying motor function to these structures.
glove-and-stocking analgesia - Loss of sensation along symmetrical nonanatomic lines and not having a dermatome distribution; characteristic of hysterical or malingered disorders.
granulation - In wounds, the formation of small, rounded masses of tissue composed largely of capillaries and fibroblasts, often with inflammatory cells present; also a mass so formed.
gray matter - Nerve tissue not covered by myelin which gives the cerebral cortex its characteristic color.
