| receptive | Sensitive or responsive to stimulus. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| receptive aphasia | Aphasia in which there is impairment in the comprehension of spoken and written words, associated with effortless, articulated, but paraphrasic, speech and writing; malformed words, substitute words, and enologisms are charcteristic. When severe, and speech is incomprehensible, it is called jargon aphasia. The patient often appears unaware of his deficit. Synonym: fluent aphasia, impressive aphasia, posterior aphasia, psychosensory aphasia, receptive aphasia, Wernicke's aphasia. (05 Mar 2000) |
| receptive field | That part of the retina whose photoreceptors (rods and cones) pertain to a single optic nerve fibre. The response of a neuron to stimulation of its receptive field depends on the type of neuron and the part of the field that is illuminated; an "on-centre" neuron is stimulated by light falling at the centre of its receptive field and inhibited by light falling at the periphery; an "off-centre" neuron reacts in exactly the opposite fashion; that is, it is inhibited by light falling at the centre of its receptive field. In either case, the net response depends on a complex switching action in the retina. When an entire receptive field is equally illuminated, the response of receptors at the centre of the field predominates. (05 Mar 2000) |