#neuropsychology

• Abalienation — The act of alienating or the state resulting from it; mental alienation, derangement of the mind, or loss of cognitive psychological faculties. In Latin medical terminology and early neurology textbooks, 'abalienatio mentis' designated a global collapse of intellectual functions, serving as a conceptual predecessor to the modern terms dementia, psychosis, or severe psychic dissociation.
• Primer — An elementary textbook designed for learning how to read and write. In clinical psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, and speech therapy, the structure of a primer is used as a standardized assessment tool to determine basic linguistic competencies. It serves to identify early signs of developmental dyslexia, agraphia, or alexia. It is also integrated into language re-education protocols for aphasic patients who suffered vascular or traumatic lesions in cortical brain areas dedicated to language.
• Primers — The plural form of the neuter noun 'abecedar', designating multiple elementary textbooks or alphabetical learning sets. In language rehabilitation clinics, pediatric speech therapy, and neuropsychology, utilizing various types of primers (visual, tactile, or phonetic) allows the adaptation of the therapeutic strategy to the patient's specific cognitive or sensory deficit.
• Abkhaz (language) — The language spoken by the Abkhaz people, belonging to the Northwest Caucasian language family; as an adjective, it represents the feminine form of the word 'abhaz'. In neuropsychology and speech pathology (aphasiology), the highly complex grammatical structure of the Abkhaz language (characterized by a massive consonant inventory and polysynthetic verbal structure) has served as a clinical model for studying how the human brain processes difficult sounds after brain trauma or strokes.
• Barely / Scarcely — An adverb with a restrictive or temporal meaning, indicating an action performed with great effort, difficulty, to a minimal degree, or at an immediate prior moment. In neuropsychological and speech therapy assessments, the term is used clinically as a qualitative marker in observation files to describe the severe limitations of patients with aphasia, dyspnea, or motor trauma (e.g., patients who can barely pronounce simple words or can scarcely maintain their balance).
• Acalculia — A clinical neurological or neuropsychological deficit characterized by the acquired loss of the ability to perform simple arithmetic operations or to understand fundamental mathematical concepts, typically occurring due to an organic brain injury (usually affecting the left parietal lobe). Unlike dyscalculia, which is a congenital developmental disorder, achalusia represents a cognitive impairment secondary to trauma, stroke, or neurodegenerative processes.
• Acataphasia — A severe neuropsychological speech disorder characterized by the patient's inability to formulate syntactically and grammatically correct sentences, whereas the ability to pronounce isolated words and the comprehension of their meaning remain intact. This symptom typically arises from focal brain lesions or specific neurodegenerative conditions, leading to fragmented, agrammatic, and incoherent expression.
• Acatagraphia — A neuropsychological disorder characterized by an individual's pathological inability to write syntactically, structurally, and grammatically correct sentences or texts, whereas the ability to copy text, spell isolated words, and the motor function of the hand remain unaffected. It represents the graphic equivalent of acataphasia, caused by dysfunction in the higher cortical areas responsible for the symbolic organization of written language.
• Aphasiologist — A medical specialist, clinician, or interdisciplinary researcher who specializes in aphasiology, focusing on the diagnosis, theoretical study, rehabilitation, and treatment of language and communication disorders caused by organic brain lesions.
• Aphasiologist (female) — The feminine form of afaziolog; a female medical specialist, clinician, or researcher specializing in aphasiology, dedicated to diagnosing, studying, and treating language and communication disorders caused by organic brain damage.
• Agnosia — A neurological disorder characterized by an inability to recognize or interpret sensory impressions, such as objects, persons, sounds, or shapes, despite intact primary sensory organs and general intellectual functioning; it typically results from structural damage to the associative cerebral cortex.
• Agraphia — A neurological disorder characterized by the partial or complete loss of the ability to write, resulting from acquired brain damage to the dominant hemisphere, unrelated to motor paralysis of the hand or general intellectual impairment.
• Agrammatism — A neurological language disorder commonly associated with Broca's aphasia, characterized by the loss of the ability to produce grammatically correct sentences; patients exhibit a telegraphic speech style, omitting functional words such as prepositions, articles, and conjunctions.
• Alalic — Pertaining to alalia, relating to alalia, or affected by this pathological language disorder; characterized by the structural or functional inability to speak and articulate words, although intellect, auditory function, and peripheral speech organs are fully intact. In clinical terms, it describes the specific symptomatology of a patient (usually a child) who cannot develop speech due to developmental dysfunctions or lesions within the higher cerebral nervous centers.
• Alalic — The feminine form of the adjective 'alalic'; it describes a manifestation, a condition, a disorder, or a female person presenting the specific symptoms of alalia, a pathological stage marked by the absence of articulated speech while hearing and intelligence remain intact. From a clinical and therapeutic standpoint, the term structurally applies to the expressive or receptive forms of this dysfunction.
• Alexic — Pertaining to alexia, belonging to alexia, or affected by this neurological disorder; a person who has lost the ability to read and decode written language due to a cortical brain lesion. In medical semiology, the term characterizes the cognitive behavior or specific deficits within a complex aphasic syndrome, where the recognition of symbolic graphic signs is completely compromised.
• Alexic — The feminine form for alexic, designating a female patient or person affected by alexia (loss of reading ability due to a brain lesion); also, it describes a manifestation, disorder, or pathological state presenting the characteristics of alexia, marked by the impossibility of decoding written graphic signs.
• Alexia — A severe neurological disorder characterized by the total or partial loss of the ability to read and comprehend written language, caused by an acquired lesion in the brain structures involved in visual-linguistic processing (specifically in the left parietal or occipital lobe). Unlike illiteracy, the condition occurs in individuals who previously possessed the ability to read, and unlike dyslexia, it is an acquired condition rather than a developmental disorder.
• The alexias — The definite articulated feminine plural form of the noun alexia, designating collectively and specifically all the types, manifestations, or identified clinical cases of loss of the ability to read and comprehend written text due to a cortical brain lesion. In medical literature, the term individualizes the forms of word blindness studied within a specific patient group or nosological framework.
• Amorphognosia — A cognitive neurological disorder of the agnostic type, consisting of the patient's inability to recognize, through tactile palpation, the general shape or geometric dimensions of objects, in the absence of elementary skin sensory deficiencies. This structural defect indicates a focused lesion within the contralateral parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex.