Neuroglossary
Terms used in brain injury, spinal cord injury and other neurotrauma treatment and rehabilitation
vagus nerve - Cranial Nerve X. Supplies motor and sensory nerve fibers to and from heart, lungs, larynx, pharynx, diaphragm, and other gastrointestinal organs.
validity - The usefulness of a procedure. That is, does the test measure what it is assigned to measure?
Valsalvaﾒs maneuver - Maneuver whereby the patient holds his or her breath or gives a voluntary cough or sneeze to produce pain. These activities, holding the breath, coughing, or sneezing, increase the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid. This enlarges the pressure against the already pressured nerve, causing pain and numbness. The location of this intensified pain also contributes to the diagnosis.
vasoconstriction - Reduction of the inner diameter of vessels, especially constriction of arterioles, leading to decreased blood flow to a part.
vasodilation - Vessels stretched beyond the normal dimensions, especially arterioles. This leads to increased blood flow to a part.
venous plexus - Network of interconnecting veins.
ventral - Relative directional term denoting a position more toward the belly surface than some other object of reference; also called anterior, opposite of dorsal.
vertebra - Pieces of a special type of bone that form the spinal column. Any of the thirty-three bones of the spinal column, comprising the seven cervical, twelve thoracic, five lumbar, five sacral, and four coccygeal vertebrae.
vertebral arch - Shaped like the arch on a padlock where the spinal canal compares to the solid part of the padlock. The vertebral arch is the part of the vertebra that encloses the vertebral foramen, or nerve openings. The vertebral arch (neural arch), which is attached on each side to the body, protects the neural tissues (spinal cord and nerve roots) from injury. Two pedicles (L. little feet) form the arch and project at the back, meeting two laminae (L. thin plates), which meet to form a spinous process down the back. Arising from the vertebral arch are also four articular processes/facets and two transverse processes. The space enclosed by the body and arch is the vertebral foramen.
vertebral arteries - Vertebral arteries distribute into the muscles of the neck, vertebrae, spinal cord, cerebellum, and interior of the cerebrum. They originate in the subclavian artery. Their branches are spinal and meningeal, posterior inferior cerebellar, basilar, and anterior and posterior spinal arteries.
vertebral body - Large, heavy, anterior part of a vertebra with the form of a short cylinder. Its function is to support weight. The bodies of the vertebrae, especially from T4 downward, become larger in order to bear greater weight.
vertebral canal - The spinal canal, which contains the spinal cord.
vertebral column - Assemblage of the vertebrae from the cranium through the coccyx into a column; also called the spinal column, the backbone, and the spine.
vertebral column movement - Movement in a vertebral column that includes flexion, extension, lateral flexion (bending), and rotation. At the joints of the vertebral column, rocking, rotation and gliding occur with gliding movements at the zygapophyseal (facet) joints. Movements are freer in the cervical and lumbar regions. The thoracic region, connected to the sternum by way of the ribs and costal cartilages, moves very little with flexion being almost non-existent there.
vertebral foramen - Large opening in a vertebra formed by its body and arch. Also called medullary foramen and spinal foramen or aperature.
vertebral segment - Segment of the spinal column composed of two vertebral bodies, a disc, and the corresponding facets and ligaments. See spinal segmental unit.
vertebrogenic symptoms - Refers to the neural innervation of the anterior longitudinal ligament and the anterior annulus fibrosus. Vertebrogenic pain localized to the spine is sharp and deep.
vertical compression lesion - A type of injury that occurs when divers hit the bottom of the pool with their head or when a car rolls over and someoneﾒs head is crushed against the roof of the car.
vertigo - A subjective sense of imbalance usually noted as an illusion of moving or spinning of the external world. May be due to disturbance of the labyrinth, a part of the vestibular apparatus.
vestibular apparatus - The balance apparatus in the inner ear (semicircular canals) which helps orient the individual in space. The eighth cranial nerve supplies this apparatus.
vestibular nerve (eighth cranial nerve) - The auditory or the vestibular cochlear nerve. It conveys information about equilibrium, balance, position, and movement of the head, etc.
vestibulocochlear (auditory-vestibular) - Cranial Nerve VIII. Transmits sensation to the brain from the labyrinth for hearing reception and transmits sensation to the brain from the cochlea, the hearing end organ.
vestibulospinal tract - Bundle of nerve fibers that connect the vestibular nuclei of the medulla with the nuclei of the spinal cord.
viable - Capable of living; especially said of a fetus reaching a stage of development that it can live outside of the uterus.
viscera - Organs inside the chest, abdomen, and pelvis, such as the heart, lungs, stomach, liver, spleen, and uterus.
visceral - Related to the organs.
visceral muscle - Found in large interior organs of the three great cavities of the body, especially in the abdomen.
visual attention and visual motility - Refer to the individual's ability to attend, localize, and follow stimuli for efficient processing of visual information.
visual brain stem evoked potentials (VBP) - A method of recording visual stimuli as they are processed and integrated in the brain stem.
visual field defect - A problem in relation to what is seen as opposed to location of damage in optic system; occurs because of the crossing of half of the optic fibers at the optic
chiasm.
visual motor coordination - The coordination of visual perception with motion; the ability to see something and react with a movement.
visual perception - The ability of the eyes and brain to use incoming visual stimuli to form a complete picture of the visual world.
volition - Self-initiated, goal-directed activity, manifest as "drive," persistence, etc.
voluntary muscle - Muscle responsible for the skeleton's movement (and the movement of organs such as the orb of the eye and the tongue). It is often called voluntary muscle because it can be controlled voluntarily.p>
