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.

A self-renewing, multipotent cell that generates the neurons and glia of the nervous system of all animals during embryonic development. Some persist in the adult vertebrate brain and continue to produce neurons throughout life.

A branch of linguistics that examines the connection between language and the structure and functioning of the brain.

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.

The awareness of the position and movement of the body.

The ability to embed linguistic structures of similar types within each other.

A structure that forms the connection between a neuron and another cell (neuron or other effector cell), that allows for transmission of electrical or chemical signals.