Brain and Nervous System Terms

A tiny organ in the cerebrum that produces melatonin.

A type of germ cell tumor that is found in the pineal gland in the brain.

Its hormone announces that night has arrived rather than causing sleep, which is why light at the wrong hour shifts the whole clock.

Three names for one structure: the shift from gland to organ signals a different field talking, not a different piece of anatomy.

A type of brain tumor that occurs in or around the pineal gland, a tiny organ near the center of the brain.

A tumor sitting exactly where it can dam the brain's drainage, so the first sign is pressure rather than anything local.

A slow growing type of brain tumor that occurs in or around the pineal gland, a tiny organ near the center of the brain.

A nerve that has become thick and misshapen due to the abnormal growth of cells and tissues that cover the nerve.

A disorder affecting a network of nerves, blood vessels, or lymph vessels.

An older label for damage affecting many nerves at once, kept mainly where inflammation is genuinely the cause.

A polysomnogram, commonly called a sleep study, records brain activity, breathing, heart rhythm, and muscle activity overnight to help diagnose sleep disorders.

Damage to it produces combinations of findings so characteristic that the site can often be named before any scan is done.

Having to do with the pons (part of the central nervous system, located at the base of the brain, between the medulla oblongata and the midbrain).

Both unusually high and unusually low blood potassium levels can disrupt the heart's electrical rhythm, making this mineral closely monitored during illness.

The water-loving member of the statin family, which is why it sidesteps most of the drug interactions that trouble the others.

Cancer that forms in the lymph tissue of the brain, spinal cord, meninges (outer covering of the brain), or eye (called ocular lymphoma).

Radiation therapy to the head to reduce the risk that cancer will spread to the brain.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer, including certain types of lung, pancreas, and brain cancer.

Rabies is a viral infection transmitted through the saliva of an infected mammal, almost always fatal once neurological symptoms appear.

The light-sensitive layers of nerve tissue at the back of the eye that receive images and sends them as electric signals through the optic nerve to the brain.