Brain and Nervous System Terms

A neuroma is a benign growth composed of nerve tissue that can develop after nerve injury or arise along an existing nerve pathway.

The cell behind every thought and every movement, and the one the adult brain almost never replaces once it is lost.

A doctor who never meets the patient, yet whose reading of a few slides can settle a diagnosis nothing else can settle.

Disease or dysfunction of one or more nerves.

Short protein-like messengers used by nerve cells for slower, longer-lasting signals than ordinary neurotransmitters send.

A scan shows structure, while neuropsychological testing shows what a person can actually do, and the two often disagree.

Neuroradiologists interpret imaging of the brain, spine, and nervous system and often perform minimally invasive procedures guided by those same images.

A doctor who specializes in surgery on the brain, spine, and other parts of the nervous system.

Neurotoxicity refers to damage to nerve tissue caused by exposure to a toxic substance, whether a chemical, drug, or naturally occurring toxin.

A neurotoxin is a substance that damages or disrupts the normal function of nerve cells or the nervous system.

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers released by nerve cells to relay signals across the small gaps separating one nerve cell from another or from a muscle.

A rare genetic condition that causes brown spots and tumors on the skin, freckling in skin areas not exposed to the sun, tumors on the nerves, and developmental changes in the nervous system…

A genetic condition in which tumors form on the nerves of the inner ear and cause loss of hearing and balance.

An anticancer drug that can cross the blood-brain barrier.

A chemical made by some nerve cells and in the adrenal gland.

Most of what circulates leaks from sympathetic nerve endings rather than pouring out of the adrenal glands, unlike its better known relative.

The parts of the body involved in sensing smell, including the nose and many parts of the brain.

A series of events in which cells in the nose bind to scent-bearing molecules and send electrical signals to the brain where they are perceived as smells.

A brain tumor that forms from both oligodendrocytes and astrocytes, which are types of glial cells (cells that cover and protect nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and help them work the way…

A cell that forms the myelin sheath (a layer that covers and protects nerve cells) in the brain and spinal cord.