| receptive | Sensitive or responsive to stimulus. (05 Mar 2000) |
|---|---|
| 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) |
| cardioesophageal relaxation | Relaxation of the lower oesophageal sphincter which can allow reflux of acidic gastric contents into the lower oesophagus, producing oesophagitis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| relaxation | A state of relative freedom from both anxiety and skeletal muscle tension. (16 Dec 1997) |
| relaxation factor | Substance presumably involved in the return of muscle fibrils to the resting state after nervous stimulation ceases, postulated to act by withdrawing Calcium from myosin-ATPase sites. (05 Mar 2000) |
| relaxation response | An integrated hypothalamic reaction resulting in decreased sympathetic nervous system activity which, physiologically and psychologically, is almost a mirror image of the body's response's to Cannon's emergency theory (flight or fight response); can be self-induced through the use of techniques associated with transcendental meditation, yoga, and biofeedback. See: emergency theory. (05 Mar 2000) |
| relaxation suture | A suture so arranged that it may be loosened if the tension of the wound becomes excessive. (05 Mar 2000) |
| relaxation techniques | The use of muscular relaxation techniques in treatment. (12 Dec 1998) |
| relaxation time | Time taken for a system to return to the resting or ground state or a new equilibrium state following perturbation. Often used in context of receptor systems that have a refractory period after responding and then relax to a competent state. Can be used more precisely to mean the time for a system to change from its original equilibrium value to 1/e of this original value. (18 Nov 1997) |
| muscle relaxation | That phase of a muscle twitch during which a muscle returns to a resting position. (12 Dec 1998) |
| progressive muscle relaxation | A cognitive-behavioural strategy in which muscles are alternately tensed and then relaxed in a systematic fashion. (16 Dec 1997) |
| spin-lattice relaxation | In nuclear magnetic resonance, the return of the magnetic dipoles of the hydrogen nuclei (magnetization vector) to equilibrium parallel to the magnetic field, after they have been flipped 90 |
| spin-spin relaxation | In nuclear magnetic resonance, the return of the magnetic dipoles of the hydrogen nuclei (magnetization vector) to equilibrium parallel to the magnetic field, after they have been flipped 90 |
| isometric relaxation | Decrease in tension of a muscle while the length remains constant due to fixation of the ends. (05 Mar 2000) |