Article - What are the benefits of Tetris?
The theory is that Tetris thickens the cerebral cortex - part of the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought,...
GLOSSARY
Alpha Motor Neurons
Large lower motor neurons of the brainstem and spinal cord. They innervate extrafusal muscle fibers of skeletal muscle and are directly responsible for initiating their contraction.
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Aphasia
The loss of a previously held ability to speak or understand spoken or written language, due to disease or injury of the brain.
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Archicortex
The part of the cerebral cortex (pallium) that with the palaeocortex develops in association with the olfactory system and is phylogenetically older than the neocortex and lacks its layered structure.
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Axon
The process of a neuron by which impulses travel away from the cell body; at the terminal arborization of the axon, the impulses are transmitted to other nerve cells or to effector organs. Larger axons are covered by a myelin sheath.
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Betz Cells
Pyramidal cell neurons located within the fifth layer of the grey matter in the primary motor cortex.
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Cerebral Cortex
The convoluted layer of gray substance covering each cerebral hemisphere.
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Coronal
Lying in the direction of the frontal plane (of a plane along the long axis of the body).
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Cortical Insula
(Abbreviation: insula) a structure of the human brain. It lies deep to the brain's lateral surface, within the lateral sulcus which separates the temporal lobe and inferior parietal cortex.
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Cortical Minicolumn
A vertical column through the cortex layer containing of the order of 80–120 neurons except in the primate striate cortex (V1), where the number is more than doubled.
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Dendrite
The branched projections of a neuron that act to conduct the electrical stimulation received from other neural cells to the cell body, or soma, of the neuron from which the dendrites project. Electrical stimulation is transmitted onto dendrites by upstream neurons via synapses which are located at...
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Fissure
A natural division or groove in an organ, as in the brain.
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Germinal Cell
A cell from which other cells are derived, especially a dividing cell in the embryonic neural tube.
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Glial Cells
Non-neuronal cells that provide support and nutrition, maintain homeostasis, form myelin, and participate in signal transmission in the nervous system. In the human brain, glia are estimated to outnumber neurons by about 10 to 1.
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Granular
Made up of or marked by the presence of granules or grains.
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Grey Matter
Nerve tissue, especially of the brain and spinal cord, that contains fibres and nerve cell bodies and is dark reddish-grey.
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