CARTA Glossary

In invertebrates, a long, slender projection of a neuron that transmits information (as electrical impulses) to different neurons, muscles, and glands.

The majority of the nervous system that consists of the brain, spinal cord, retina, optic nerves, and olfactory epithelium. The CNS integrates sensory information and coordinates and influences the activity of the body in bilaterally symmetric animals (all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish).

The ability to refer to entities, properties, and events at some spatial and/or temporal remove from the immediate communicative situation (Kluender, 2020).

Non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system that do not produce electrical impulses. Their function is to ensure homeostasis, form myelin sheaths, and provide support and protection for neurons. Glia make up ~50% of our brain cells.

Any problem solving strategy that involves the usage of generalizations as mental shortcuts to quickly come to adequate solutions for complex problems.

A process that stimulates the response of the system in order to estimate the outcome of a system disturbance.

Machine learning algorithms that can recognize, summarize, translate, predict, and generate human languages on the basis of very large text-based datasets.

The vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge.

A part of the nervous system that carries signals from the brain to skeletal muscle and smooth muscle.

A theory that proposes the brain pathways that control the learning and production of song and speech were derived from adjacent motor brain pathways.

A burrowing rodent endemic to parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, and is the only mammal with cold-blooded-like body temperature regulation and eusocial behavior.

The process by which neural stem cells produce neurons.

A multidisciplinary science that is concerned with the study of the structure and function of the nervous system. It encompasses the evolution, development, cellular and molecular biology, physiology, anatomy and pharmacology of the nervous system, as well as computational, behavioral and cognitive neuroscience.

The organization of the sounds or signs in language.

An approach to machine intelligence that also incorporates other features of human intelligence such as causal reasoning, intuitive psychology, and physics.

The study of the logic and meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text.

The ability of synapses to change in relation to activity and inactivity, with these changes as central to communication between neurons and memory.