Brain Injury Terms and Definitions

trigeminal neuralgia
A painful condition caused by a disturbance in the function of the trigeminal nerve, which carries sensation from your face to your brain.

closed head injury
An injury to the head or brain in which the skull remains intact.

Central nervous system Birth Defect
Neural tube defects, hydrocephaly, holoprosencephaly, Dandy-Walker malformation

cerebellum
The portion of the brain mainly responsible for balance and coordination.

hippocampus
Part of the brain that assists in storing memory by sorting and sending new bits of information to be stored in appropriate sections of your brain and recalling them when necessary.

Eye Birth Defect
Anophthalmia/microphthalmia, congenital cataracts, glaucoma

brain plasticity
Theories based on the idea that the brain may have the ability to use surviving brain cells in a different way to make up for those brain cells that are damaged.

Crouzonodermoskeletal syndrome
Crouzonodermoskeletal syndrome is a genetic disorder characterized by the remature joining of certain bones of the skull (craniosynostosis) and a skin disorder called acanthosis nigricans.

Gastrointestinal Birth Defect
Esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula, intestinal atresia, biliary atresia

cerebral palsy
A disorder caused by injury to the cerebral area of the brain that occurs before or during birth or in the first few months after birth. Damage to the cerebrum may cause paralysis (palsy) in one or more parts of the body.