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- Glossary
Executive functions
Brain research uses the term "executive functions" to describe the "higher" mental abilities of living beings. These include, for example, focused attention, planning actions, error correction, decision-making, impulse control, and emotional regulation.
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- Glossary
Extinction
In extinction, a previously conditioned stimulus is presented several times without the originally paired reinforcement until the conditioned response subsides. For example, a dog has learned that the ringing of a bell announces food (conditioned stimulus → conditioned salivation response). In extinction, the bell is now rung several times without food following. After a few repetitions, the dog stops drooling when the bell rings: the conditioned response subsides. This decrease in response can also be detected at the synaptic level, for example, by a reduction in neurotransmitter release.
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- Glossary
Extrapyramidal system
The extrapyramidal system refers to a series of structures in the brain that play a key role in influencing motor function but are not part of the pyramidal tract. It consists of multisynaptic neuron chains. The extrapyramidal system includes numerous nuclei such as the striatum, pallidum, nucleus ruber, and substantia nigra.
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- Glossary
excitatory
Exciting synapses are described as excitatory when they depolarize the subsequent cell membrane and can thus lead to the formation of an action potential. An excitatory effect is usually produced by an exciting transmitter (messenger substance), such as glutamate. The opposite is an inhibitory synapse.
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- Glossary
Color blindness
The inability to perceive colors. Instead, those affected only see brightness. This can be caused by hereditary cone blindness or a retinal disease, for example, but also by damage to the optic nerves or visual association areas.
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- Glossary
Color consistency
A correction mechanism that ensures the relatively constant appearance of an object's color under different lighting conditions. This means that the red of a rose appears the same in the morning as it does in the evening, even though the light changes depending on the time of day and weather conditions.
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- Glossary
Color tone
One of the dimensions of color perception: the dominant wavelength.
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- Glossary
Misattribution
Mismatch refers to an incorrect attribution of cause, for example between physical experience and cognitive evaluation. In an experiment conducted by Dutton and Aron (1974), male subjects were placed in a risky situation, which caused intense physical arousal. At the end of the experiment, the men were interviewed by an attractive woman. Two-thirds of the test subjects later called the woman – they had misattributed their arousal caused by the risk to romantic feelings.
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- Glossary
Fissure
The strong folding of the cortex (cerebral cortex) creates fissures – from the Latin: cleft. These clefts can be used to describe individual brain structures. For example, the fissura sylvii separates the temporal lobe from the frontal lobe. Less deep clefts are often referred to as sulci.
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- Glossary
Reticular formation
The reticular formation is a network of numerous nuclei in the brain stem. It has a variety of tasks, for example, it is responsible for alertness, the integration of motor, sensory, and vegetative processes, and the sleep-wake cycle.
