Brain Injury Glossary

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Brain Injury Glossary

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Case Worker: A professional who facilitates the access of a patient to appropriate medical, rehabilitation and support programs, and coordination of the delivery of services. This role may involve liaison with various professionals and agencies, advocacy on behalf of the patient, and arranging for purchase of services where no appropriate programs are available.
Catheter: A flexible tube for withdrawing fluids from, or introducing fluids into, a cavity of the body. Frequently used to drain the urinary bladder (Foley catheter).
Celiac Plexus: A cluster of nerve fibers located in the abdomen that operate in conjunction with the autonomic nervous system and conduct pain sensations of the abdominal organs.
Central Nervous System (CNS): The CNS includes the brain and spinal cord. The prevailing theory is that CNS cells won't repair themselves. Experiments show, however, that CNS nerves can re-grow and reconnect to appropriate targets. A clinical "fix" for spinal cord injury has not yet been found.
Cerebellum: The portion of the brain (located at the back) which helps coordinate movement. Damage may result in ataxia.
Cerebral Embolism: A blocked blood vessel, usually caused by a blood clot that prevents blood flow to the brain.
Cerebral Hemisphere: Half, or one side of the brain. Typically, the left side of the brain controls language and the right side deals with spatial orientation.
Cerebral Hemorrhage: Bleeding into the brain.
Cerebral Palsy: A disorder caused by a brain injury that occurred before or during birth or in the first few months after birth. Damage may cause paralysis (palsy) in one or more parts of the body.
Cerebral Vascular Accident (CVA): An event resulting in diminished or blocked blood flow to an area in the brain. Symptoms of CVA can include paralysis, loss of speech, unconsciousness, and death.
Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF): Liquid that fills the ventricles of the brain and surrounds the brain and spinal cord.
Cerebrum: The largest section of the brain that is divided into hemispheres and controls speech, muscles/ movement, vision, personality, and memory.
Cervical: The upper spine (neck) area of the vertebral column. Cervical injuries often result in quadriplegia (tetraplegia).
Chronic: Marked by long duration or frequent recurrence.
Circumlocution: Use of other words to describe a specific word or idea which cannot be remembered.
Client: A person under the protection of another; one who engages the professional advice or services of another.
Clonus: A sustained series of rhythmic jerks following quick stretch of a muscle.
Closed Head Injury: Trauma to the brain in which the skull remains intact.
Cognition: The conscious process of knowing or being aware of thoughts, including understanding and reasoning.
Cognitive Dissonance: Individual awareness of inconsistencies in thoughts, feelings, and opinions.
Cognitive Function: An intellectual process resulting in an understanding, perception, or awareness of one’s ideas.
Cognitive Process: Higher mental functioning; learning, memory, imagination, comprehension, decision making. The means by which an individual becomes aware of people, objects and situations in the environment and their subjective, symbolic meaning.
Cognitive Rehabilitation: Therapy programs which aid persons in the management of specific problems in perception, memory, thinking and problem solving. Skills are practiced and strategies are taught to help improve function and/or compensate for remaining deficits. The interventions are based on an assessment and understanding of the person's brain-behavior deficits and services are provided by qualified practitioners.
Coma: A state of unconsciousness from which the patient cannot be awakened or aroused, even by powerful stimulation; lack of any response to one's environment. Defined clinically as an inability to follow a one-step command consistently; Glasgow Coma Scale score of 8 or less.
Communicative Disorder: An impairment in the ability to 1) receive and/or process a symbol system, 2) represent concepts or symbol systems, and/or 3) transmit and use symbol systems. The impairment may be observed in disorders of hearing, language, and/or speech processes.
Community Integration Program: Provides services designed to accomplish functional outcomes focused on home and community integration, including productive activity. Services may be provided in residential facilities, day treatment programs, and the consumer's home. They may be of short-term (several weeks) or long-term duration (several months).
Community Skills: Those abilities needed to function independently in the community. They may include: telephone skills, money management, pedestrian skills, use of public transportation, meal planning and cooking.
Complete Lesion: An injury with no motor or sensory function below the zone of cord destruction at the site of primary trauma.
Comprehension: Understanding of spoken, written, or gestural communication.
Compulsive Talking: Unrestrainable, repetitive irrational talking.
Compulsive Writing: Uncontrollable urge to repetitive irrational writing.
Concentration: Maintaining attention on a task over a period of time; remaining attentive and not easily diverted.
Conceptual Tracking: The ability to follow a series of abstract ideas or thoughts.
Concrete Thinking: A style of thinking in which the individual sees each situation as unique and is unable to generalize from the similarities between situations. Language and perceptions are interpreted literally so that a proverb such as "a stitch in time saves nine" cannot be readily grasped.
Concussion: The common result of a blow to the head causing a temporary altered mental state.
Confabulation: Verbalizations about people, places, and events with no basis in reality. May be a detailed account delivered.
Confidentiality: A principle which states that personal information about others, particularly patients, should not be revealed to persons not authorized to receive such information.
Confusion: A state in which a person is bewildered, perplexed, or unable to self-orient.
Conjugate Movement: Both eyes move simultaneously in the same direction. Convergence of the eyes toward the midline (crossed eyes) is a disconjugate movement.
Consciousness: The state of awareness of the self and the environment.
Contracture: Loss of range of motion in a joint due to abnormal shortening of soft tissues.
Continent: The ability to control urination and bowel movements.
Convergence: Movement of two eyeballs inward to focus on an object moved closer. The nearer the object, the greater is the degree of convergence necessary to maintain single vision.
Conversion Disorder: A neurosis caused by the patient's conscious or unconscious desire to escape or avoid some unpleasant situation or responsibility or, to obtain sympathy or some other secondary gain. In women particularly, the symptoms of traumatic brain injury are sometimes mistakenly diagnosed as conversion disorder
Coping Strategies: Skills developed through experience for life situations.
Cortical Blindness: Loss of vision resulting from a lesion of the primary visual areas of the occipital lobe. Light reflex is preserved.
Coup: A blow to the head at the site of impact.
Contrecoup: Bruising of brain tissue on the side opposite where the blow was struck.
Computerized Axial Tomography (CT Scan): A series of X-rays taken at different levels of the brain that allows the direct visualization of the skull and intracranial structures. A scan is often taken soon after the injury to help decide if surgery is needed. The scan may be repeated later to see how the brain is recovering.
Corpus Callosum: A band of nerve fibers joining the hemispheres of the brain.
Craniotomy: Surgical removal of the skull in small pieces.
Cranium: The portion of the skull that encapsulated the brain.
Cue: A signal, hint, or direction used to assist a person in remembering, or performing an activity.

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