animal consciousness
Consciousness has periodically been a pressing issue in the scientific study of non‐human animals, and we are currently in one of these periods. As with humans, discussions of consciousness in ...
autism
1 A pathological self-absorption and preoccupation with the self to the exclusion of the outside world, characteristic of some forms of autistic disorder and schizophrenia.2 An alternative name for ...
development and consciousness
There is widespread agreement that the contents of consciousness are continually in flux and likely to change in systematic ways over the course of human development. But questions about the ...
emotion
(i-moh-shŏn)a state of arousal that can be experienced as pleasant or unpleasant. Emotions can have three components: for example, fear can involve an unpleasant subjective experience, an increase in ...
empathy
n. the ability to imagine and understand the thoughts, perspective, and emotions of another person. In counselling and psychotherapy empathy is often considered to be one of the necessary qualities ...
infant consciousness
Infants have little knowledge, but they show intentions to gain experience with the aid of sympathetic company. Is this consciousness?1. Intentions and personal consciousness before language2. ...
insula
The large pyramid-shaped structure in the limbic system of the brain that lies deep between the opercula or lips of the lateral sulcus of each cerebral hemisphere and that is exposed by retracting ...
motor cortex
(moh-ter)the region of the cerebral cortex that is responsible for initiating nerve impulses that bring about voluntary activity in the muscles of the body.
mu wave
An EEG wave, with a frequency of 8–13 hertz near the motor cortex, that tends to be suppressed when an individual performs a voluntary muscle movement or forms an intention to make such a movement. ...
neuron
(neurone, nerve cell) n. one of the basic functional units of the nervous system: a cell specialized to transmit electrical nerve impulses and so carry information from one part of the body to ...
parietal lobe
The upper lobe on the side of each cerebral hemisphere, separated on its lateral or outer surface from the frontal lobe by the central sulcus, from the temporal lobe by the lateral sulcus and an ...
phantom limb
An illusory sensation, experienced by an amputee, of the limb still being attached to the body, even when all sensory nerve fibres associated with the limb have been removed. It is experienced by ...
rubber hand illusion
People can be induced to have the experience that a rubber hand is their own hand. This is achieved by brushing a visible rubber hand and synchronously brushing a participant's ...
sensorimotor approach to consciousness
The sensorimotor approach is concerned with elucidating only one particular aspect of the problem of consciousness, namely the problem of phenomenal consciousness or sensory feel. Phenomenal ...
skill
Expertise or accomplishment in any field; specifically, any complex, organized pattern of behaviour acquired through training and practice, including cognitive skills such as mathematics or chess, ...
social cognition
The cognitive activity that accompanies and mediates social behaviour, including the acquisition of information about the social environment, the organization and transformation of this information ...
social learning
The processes by which social influences alter people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. The earliest social learning theories, put forward in 1950 by the US psychologists John Dollard (1900–80) ...
superior temporal sulcus
The horizontal sulcus near the top of each temporal lobe, immediately below the superior temporal gyrus, believed to contain neurons that respond to visual images of faces. See also mirror neuron. ...
theory of mind
People's intuitive understanding of their own and other people's minds or mental states, including beliefs and thoughts. It develops by degrees from a very early age in humans: by the age of 3 years ...
