| absence seizures | Brief generalized epileptic seizures during which patients, usually children, seem to absent themselves from their surroundings.
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| acquired brain disorders | Damage to a normally developed or developing brain. The damage can result in cognitive, behavioral, and emotional dysfunction.
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| acute confusional state | The state of disorientation that a patient suffering from a brain contusion may experience upon awakening from the coma.
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| agnosia | A disturbance in the ability to recognize familiar objects.
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| Alzheimer's disease | An organic brain disorder characterized by cognitive deficits such as failure of concentration and memory. The disease can occur as early as age 40, but its prevalence increases with age.
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| amnesia | The partial or total forgetting of past experiences. It can be associated with organic brain syndromes or with psychological stress.
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| aphasia | A language impairment generally attributable to damage in the left hemisphere of the brain.
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| apraxia | Impairment of the ability to perform voluntary movements.
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| brain tumors | Abnormal growths within the brain, classified as either metastatic or primary.
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| cerebral abscess | A brain infection that becomes encapsulated by connective tissue.
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| cerebrovascular accident (CVA) | A blockage of or break in the blood vessels in the brain, resulting in injury to brain tissue. Commonly called stroke.
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| complex partial seizure | A partial epileptic seizure in which cognitive functioning is interrupted.
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| concussion | A head injury caused by a blow to the head that jars the brain and momentarily disrupts its function.
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| contusion | A head injury in which the brain is shifted out of its normal position and pressed against one side of the skull, thus bruising the neural tissue.
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| degenerative disorders | Organic brain syndromes characterized by a general deterioration of intellectual, emotional, and motor functioning as a result of progressive pathological change in the brain.
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| delirium | A global disorder of cognition and attention that begins suddenly and remits quickly, leaving most patients unharmed. Symptoms include confusion, hallucinations, and emotional lability.
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| dementia | Severe mental deterioration.
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| embolism | The obstruction of a blood vessel by a ball of a substance such as fat, air, or clotted blood, thus cutting off the blood supply; a common cause of infarction.
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| encephalitis | Any acute infection of the brain.
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| endocrine glands | Glands responsible for the production of hormones that, when released into the bloodstream, affect various bodily mechanisms such as physical growth and development.
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| epilepsy | A generic term for a variety of organic disorders characterized by irregularly occurring disturbances in consciousness in the form of seizures or convulsions. The seizures seem to be caused by a disruption in the electrical and physiochemical activity of the discharging cells of the brain.
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| frontotemporal dementia | A dementia that occurs in middle-aged people and results from progressive deterioration of the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain; it is characterized by a profound change in behavior.
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| general paresis | A final stage of syphilis, involving the gradual and irreversible breakdown of physical and mental functioning.
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| generalized seizures | Epileptic seizures that either involve the entire brain at the outset (primary) or soon spread from one part to the whole brain (secondary). Cf.partial seizure.
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| hemorrhage | A cerebrovascular accident in which a blood vessel in the brain ruptures, causing blood to spill out into the brain tissue.
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| Huntington's chorea | A fatal organic brain disorder that is transmitted genetically. Symptoms include spasmodic jerking of the limbs, bizarre behavior, and mental deterioration.
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| idiopathic epilepsy | A convulsive disorder for which there is no known cause.
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| infarction | A cerebrovascular accident in which the supply of blood to the brain is cut off, resulting in the death of brain tissue fed by that source.
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| Korsakoff's psychosis | An irreversible nutritional deficiency due to vitamin B1 deficiency associated with alcoholism; characterized by anterograde amnesia and confabulation.
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| lead encephalopathy | Toxic brain disorder caused by excessive ingestion of lead, in which fluid accumulates in the brain, causing extreme pressure.
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| Lewy body disease | A relatively common form of dementia produced by the presence of Lewy bodies in neurons in the brain. The disease may produce Parkinson's symptoms, visual hallucination, and deficits in attention, concentration, and visual-perceptual skills.
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| Lyme disease | Tickborne disease that can affect the central nervous system; if untreated, it can lead to encephalitis or meningitis.
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| mad cow disease | A spongiform brain disease of cows that results in neurological impairment and eventually death. The disease may be related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which causes similar results in humans.
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| meningitis | A cerebral infection characterized by acute inflammation of the meninges, the membrane covering of the brain and spinal cord.
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| metastatic brain tumors | Brain tumors that originate in some other part of the body and then metastasize, or spread, to the brain.
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| neurosyphilis | The deterioration of brain tissue as a result of syphilis.
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| Parkinson's disease | An organic brain disorder involving damage to the basal ganglia. Symptoms include tremors, a masklike countenance, a stiff gait, and psychological disturbances such as a general mental deficit and social withdrawal.
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| partial seizures | Epileptic seizures that originate in one part of the brain rather than in the brain as a whole. May be either simple or complex. Cf.generalized seizures.
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| penetrating head injury | Potentially, the most serious form of brain trauma, in which a foreign object, such as a bullet or piece of metal, enters the skull and directly ruptures and destroys brain tissue.
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| primary brain tumors | Tumors that originate either within the brain or outside the brain but inside the skull.
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| simple partial seizure | A partial epileptic seizure in which cognitive functioning remains intact.
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| stroke | See cerebrovascular accident (CVA).
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| symptomatic epilepsy | The label applied to convulsions that are a function of brain damage caused by pathologies such as neurosyphilis, alcohol or drug intoxication, tumors, encephalitis, trauma, or strokes.
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| thrombosis | The obstruction of a blood vessel by a buildup of fatty material coating the inside of the vessel, thus blocking the flow of blood; a common cause of infarction.
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| tonic-clonic seizures | Generalized epileptic seizures that typically begin with a tonic, or rigid, extension of the arms and legs, followed by a clonic, or jerking, movement throughout the body.
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| traumatic brain injury | Injury to brain tissue as a result of jarring, bruising, or cutting.
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| vascular dementia | The impairment of many of the brain's faculties as the cumulative result of many infarctions.
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