Science / Psychiatry Glossary

Apathy: Lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern.

Aphasia: An impairment in the understanding or transmission of ideas by language in any of its forms--reading, writing, or speaking--that is due to injury or disease of the brain centers involved in language.

Aphonia: An inability to produce speech sounds that require the use of the larynx that is not due to a lesion in the central nervous system.

Apperception: Perception as modified and enhanced by ones own emotions, memories, and biases.

Apraxia: Inability to carry out previously learned skilled motor activities despite intact comprehension and motor function; this may be seen in dementia.

Arrhythmia: Abnormal heart rhythm.

Assimilation: A Piagetian term describing a persons ability to comprehend and integrate new experiences.

Astereognosis: Inability to recognize familiar objects by touch that cannot be explained by a defect of elementary tactile sensation.

Ataxia: Partial or complete loss of coordination of voluntary muscular movement.

Attention: The ability to focus in a sustained manner on a particular stimulus or activity. A disturbance in attention may be manifested by easy distractibility or difficulty in finishing tasks or in c . . . View Full Definition

Atypical Antipsychotic: A newer class of antipsychotic, developed with the aim of offering better symptom control and fewer EPS related side effects compared with older medications.

Auditory Hallucination: A hallucination involving the perception of sound, most commonly of voices. Some clinicians and investigators would not include those experiences perceived as coming from inside the head and . . . View Full Definition

Aura: A premonitory, subjective brief sensation (e.g., a flash of light) that warns of an impending headache or convulsion. The nature of the sensation depends on the brain area in which the attac . . . View Full Definition

Autoeroticism: Sensual self-gratification. Characteristic of, but not limited to, an early stage of emotional development. Includes satisfactions derived from genital play, masturbation, fantasy, and oral, . . . View Full Definition

Automatism: Automatic and apparently undirected non-purposeful behaviour that is not consciously controlled. Seen in psychomotor epilepsy.

Autoscopy: Phantom mirror image hallucination in which one sees and recognizes oneself

Autotopagnosia: Inability to localize and name the parts of ones own body. finger agnosia would be autotopagnosia restricted to the fingers.

Avolition: An inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed activities. When severe enough to be considered pathological, avolition is pervasive and prevents the person from completing many differ . . . View Full Definition

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