Author: Glossary

Higher-level cognitive abilities such as planning or decision making. These functions are often impaired during the early stages of dementia. The cognitive capacity to plan how to do a task, how to devise strategies, and how to monitor one’s performance.  

A psychoanalytic term for the ego’s management of the mental mechanisms in order to meet the needs of the organism.  

Electrical activity produced by the brain in response to any sensory stimulus; a more specific term than eventrelated potential, as the “event” is a sound. An electrical discharge in a neutral center produced by stimulation elsewhere. Electrical response produced in the central nervous system by an external stimulus (e.g., a flash of light). The response…

The capacity to retrieve a memory by virtue of conscious will, in the absence of an externally perceived cue.  

A term used to describe a clinical practice based on studies published in the scientific literature. The publications must be peer reviewed by experts to ensure their quality. Quality depends on scientifically rigorous methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation. No single study, regardless of the quality of its design, is sufficient by itself to…

Electrical activity produced by the brain in response to a sensory stimulus or associated with the execution of a motor, cognitive, or psychophysiological task.  

An exaggerated feeling of physical and emotional wellbeing, usually of psychological origin. Also seen in delirium and dementia and in toxic and drug-induced states. An elevated positive mood. A feeling of extreme happiness. Feeling or state of well-being and optimism. An extreme feeling of mental and physical well-being, particularly when such a mood is not…

Brand name (now discontinued) for perphenazine–amitriptyline combination.  

The scientific study of animal behavior; also the empirical study of human behavior. A branch of biology that studies animal behavior under natural conditions. A branch of knowledge dealing with human ethos, its evolution, and formation; the study of behavior. The scientific study of the behavior of animals in their natural habitat and in captivity.…