CARTA Glossary

A meditative practice centered around being present in the moment.

Membrane-bound cell organelles that generate most of the chemical energy, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), needed to power the cell’s biochemical reactions. Mitochondria are believed to be endosymbionts that were originally prokaryotic cells that became incorporated into eukaryotic organisms.

An indigenous language spoken in the Mexican state of Oaxaca; The people who speak this language are considered an ethnic group.

A group of two or more atoms covalently bonded together to form the smallest fundamental unit of a chemical compound that can take part in a chemical reaction.

The rate of disease in a population (as opposed to mortality, which is death rate).

The sub-discipline of linguistics concerned with the structure and parts of words (stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes), how words are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language. Parts of speech, intonation and stress, and contextual pronunciation and meaning are aspects of Morphology.

The part of the cerebral cortex in the brain where the nerve impulses originate that initiate voluntary muscular activity.

The part of the nervous system that controls voluntary movement.

A stone tool type characterized by hand- axes, scrapers, triangle points, and denticulates (a stone tool with edges of multiple notched shapes, or teeth) produced using a prepared core (i.e. Levallois Technique) and is most associated with Neanderthals. ~315 - 30 kya.

A group of genetic diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass.

A natural, spontaneously developing sensitivity to, knowledge of, or talent for music based on and constrained by our biological and cognitive system, which is then culturally informed and reinforced.

An involuntary, permanent alteration of the body.

The pathogenic bacteria that causes tuberculosis.

Untrue stories that both the teller and listener usually believe to be true.

A common variant of sialic acid in many vertebrates that is not made by humans but can be incorporated from diets rich in red meat.

The factual or fictional representation of a coherent particular sequence of events, usually involving some agency and purpose.

A type of antibody that exists in the absence of active immunization via infection and/or contact with fetal antigens during pregnancy as a first line of defense until a specific antibody response is mounted.

A response or behavior that is strengthened by stopping, removing, or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus.

A part of the cerebral cortex concerned with sight, hearing, and touch in mammals, regarded as the most recently evolved part of the cortex.

A tumor mass, either benign (not cancer) or malignant (cancer), that is composed of cells that have lost their regulatory checks and multiply without control or do not undergo pre-programmed cell death.

A neural circuit is a functional entity of interconnected neurons that is able to regulate its own activity using a feedback loop.

A self-renewing, multipotent cell that generates the neurons and glia of the nervous system of all animals during embryonic development. Some persist in the adult vertebrate brain and continue to produce neurons throughout life.

The process by which neural stem cells produce neurons.

A branch of linguistics that examines the connection between language and the structure and functioning of the brain.

A subset of neurotransmitters that regulate diverse populations of other neurons.

The ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections through growth and reorganization. These changes include new neural connections and cortical remapping resulting from learning, environmental influences, practice, and psychological stress.

A multidisciplinary science that is concerned with the study of the structure and function of the nervous system. It encompasses the evolution, development, cellular and molecular biology, physiology, anatomy and pharmacology of the nervous system, as well as computational, behavioral and cognitive neuroscience.

A chemical released by nerve cells to send signals to other cells.

Not displaying or characterized by autistic or other neurologically atypical patterns of thought or behavior.

A form of ecological inheritance in which organisms alter the environment in ways that affect the developmental context and selection pressures acting on subsequent generations.

A receptor polypeptide that responds to the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, and also responds to nicotine.

RNA that is not translated into a protein. Important ncRNAs include transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), as well as small RNAs such as microRNAs, siRNAs, piRNAs, snoRNAs, snRNAs, exRNAs, scaRNAs and the long ncRNAs such as Xist and HOTAIR.

The finding that care giving behavior can occur in female rats and mice that have not reproduced themselves through repeated exposure to infants.

Depression that is not related to changes in the seasons.

A hormone and neurotransmitter that mobilizes the brain and body for action.

One of the four classes of major biomolecules. The overall name for DNA and RNA, which are composed of nucleotides. DNA is double-stranded and more stable while RNA is single-stranded and less stable.

Glycosylamines corresponding to nucleotides lacking a phosphate.

Exact symbolic quantifier that designates the cardinality of a collection of objects. It is abstract (i.e., it transcends perceptual modalities), relational, and operable. In its most prototypical case it is associated with the familiar counting sequence ‘1, 2, 3, . . . ’

A scale of measurement for evaluating the numerousness of stimuli (e.g., a collection of discriminable objects) utilized especially by psychophysicists in the mid-20th century, and by means of which an experimenter establishes the cardinal attribute of physical collections of objects.

Excessive body fat that increases the risk of health problems. Defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30.0 or higher. Obesity rates in the US have reached 42%, up 12% in the last 10 years.

A type of igneous rock occurring as a natural glass formed by the rapid cooling of viscous lava from volcanoes. Sometimes called “volcanic glass.”

The ratio between the odds of individuals having a phenotype associated with a specific allele and the odds of the same phenotype for individuals who do not have that same allele. 

A 48km ravine in the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania that was occupied by hominins such as Homo habilis (1.9 mya) and Zinjanthropus (Australopithecus) boisei (1.8 mya). Today, Oldupai Gorge is an important paleoanthropological site and has been under excavation since 1913, most famously by Mary and Louis Leakey. “Oldupai” is the Maasai word for “the place of the wild sisal.”

A type of neuroglia that supports and insulates axons in the central nervous system of some vertebrates.

The origin and development of an organism (from fertilization of the egg to the organism’s mature form). Can also refer to the study of an organism’s lifespan.

An almost universally human cognitive bias that seems to cause individuals to believe that they are at less risk of experiencing a negative event and more likely to experience a positive outcome compared to other people.