Use this glossary to look up the neuropsychiatric terms on The Brain Card®. Enter a few letters to start your search. You can also click on the alphabet letters below:
2 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W
Pain agnosia Inability to fully recognize pain Palilalia Spontaneous repetition of one's own words in an accelerating fashion Palinopsia Visual perseveration in time (after images) Palmomental (reflex) Release sign in which stroking palm with a sharp stimulus evokes contraction of the ipsilateral mentalis muscle Panoramic vision Rapid recall of past events Paracusis Hearing distorted sounds Paralinguistic Contributions to communication in addition to the expression & comprehension of language (e.g. pun, sarcasm, idiom, double-entendre, emotional prosody governed by right hemisphere) Paraphasia See paraphasic error Paraphasic error Involuntary word substitution errors Paraphilia Recurrent sexual urges and fantasies associated with deviant sexual behavior Parasomnia Abnormal sleep behaviors or physiologic events with full or partial arousal in REM, non-REM, or transition to or from sleep Pareidolia Vague stimuli perceived as recognizable images (e.g. seeing faces in the clouds) Paresis Neurologically induced weakness in extremity(ies) Paresthesia Prickly sensation in dermatome of peripheral nerve Pathological laughing & crying Sudden outbursts of emotional display in response to minor affective stimuli Pathological startle Exaggerated jerking startle reflex Peduncular (hallucination) Vivid movie-like non-paranoid complex hallucinations often associated with cognitive deficits Pelopsia Illusion of objects appearing closer Perseveration Involuntary repetition or continuation of a verbal or motor task after it's no longer appropriate Phonagnosia Inability to recognize voices Phoneme fluency Number of words produced beginning with a given letter Phonemic (paraphasia) Substitution of a nonsense word with similar sound to the desired word in aphasia Phosphene Visual sensations evoked by mechanical or other stimulation of eye Pica Eating non-food objects PLMD Periodic limb movement disorder (of sleep) Polyopsia Illusion of multiples of objects (form of palinopsia) Post-ictal Period after seizure activity Poverty of speech Empty vague speech lacking in spontaneity or unprompted content Praxis Ability to carry out skilled movements Press of speech (pressured speech) Rapid speech that is difficult to interrupt Propulsion Tendency to fall forward due to impaired postural reflexes Prosody Musical quality of speech Prosopagnosia Inability to recognize faces Pseudohallucination A hallucination known to patient to be non-real Psychological pillow Contraction of sternomastoid muscles in catatonia so as to hold the head inches off the bed Pull test Evaluation of postural reflexes by warning patient, then suddenly pulling back on shoulders while standing behind patient Punding (from Swedish pundning) Compulsive repetition of purposeless motor activity, sometimes associated with violent response to interruption Punning Loose associations or flight of ideas in which words are connected solely by being puns