G. Dennis Rains,
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
| allocentric space | Representations of space in which place is defined by a coordinate system that is independent of the observer.
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| analogical representation | A representation that captures some of the actual characteristics of that which it represents. For example, a road sign with a curving arrow is an analogical representation of an upcoming curve in the road.
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| anterograde topographical amnesia | Impairment in the ability to learn new spatial layouts in the absence of a primary disturbance of spatial processing.
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| apraxia | A disorder of learned, voluntary movement not due to sensory or elementary motor impairment.
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| body space | The sense of the body surface as a space on which stimuli can impinge and be localized.
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| conditional associative learning | A paired-associate learning task in which subjects are not explicitly told which stimuli are paired with which, but must extract this information through a process of trial and error.
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| constructional apraxia | Impairment in copying and drawing. This term is somewhat misleading because it is often applied descriptively to deficits in copying and drawing, even when the underlying impairment is one of spatial processing and not voluntary action.
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| covert attention | Shifts of attention that occur independently of any overt behavior--for example, visual attention that occurs independently of eye movement.
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| egocentric space | The perception of spatial location outside the body but relative to it.
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| eidetic images | Completely veridical (accurate) images. The ability to form eidetic images is very rare.
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| gaze-locked cells | Neurons that respond only when a stimulus stimulates a particular area of the retina and the animal is gazing in a particular direction. When the animal is fixating a different point, a stimulus falling on the same area of retina that caused the cell to fire during its preferred direction of gaze will not produce a response. Such cells have been found in area V3 and in parietal cortex of the monkey.
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| kinesthesis | Sense of body movement.
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| localization on the body surface | The sense of spatial location on the surface of the body.
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| neglect (syndrome) | A disorder in which an individual ignores (neglects) objects and people on one side of space.
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| neuroethology | The study of the relationship between an animal's behavior in its natural environment and the brain.
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| optic ataxia | Impairment in the ability to point to a stimulus, in the absence of primary visual disorientation or of proprioceptive, kinesthetic, or motor impairment.
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| overt attention | Attention that is manifested by some overt behavior--for example, anticipatory eye movement in the direction of a soon-to-appear target in response to a cue.
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| parahippocampal cortex | The cortical area in the medial temporal lobe that lies lateral to the perirhinal cortex.
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| perirhinal cortex | The cortical area of the medial temporal lobe that occupies the lateral bank of the rhinal sulcus.
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| place cell | A type of neuron, typically in the hippocampus, whose receptive field is the presence of the animal in a particular place within the environment.
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| place field | The place that is the receptive field of a place cell.
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| point localization threshold | The minimum distance between two successively touched points on the body surface that a person can reliably identify as in different locations.
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| proprioception | Body position sense.
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| real position cells | Neurons that fire in response to a stimulus when the stimulus is in a specific position relative to the monkey regardless of the point being fixated. Such cells are found in area V6 of monkey parietal cortex.
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| retrograde topographical amnesia | Impairment in the ability to find one's way about in previously known spatial layouts in the absence of primary disturbance of spatial processing.
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| sensory homunculus | The orderly mapping of the body surface on the somatosensory cortex (S1) in the postcentral gyrus.
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| symbolic representation | A representation that does not bear any direct relationship to the thing it denotes. Most words are symbolic representations.
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| tactual perception | Active touch. The proprioceptive and kinesthetic sensations resulting from active touch make the recognition of objects and spatial layouts possible.
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| topographical disorientation | Inability to move about in spatial layouts due to a disruption in the ability to accurately perceive the spatial relationships and distances between landmarks.
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| topographical memory disorder | Impairment in the ability to learn new spatial layouts (anterograde topographical amnesia) or loss of the ability to move about in previously known spatial layouts (retrograde anterograde amnesia), in the absence of a primary disturbance in spatial processing. Also called topographical amnesia.
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| visual disorientation | The inability to fixate an object (cause a stimulus to fall on the retinal fovea) in the absence of primary visual or primary motor impairment.
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| visual localization | The ability to point to or touch a visual stimulus. Impairment in this ability (termed optic ataxis) is defined as impairment in the ability to touch a visual stimulus in the absence of primary visual, primary somatosensory, and primary motor impairment.
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| visuospatial agnosia | A term used in the 1950s that embodies the assumption that perceptual impairment could be confined to the domain of visuospatial processing.
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education