A self-regulating division of the nervous system that controls involuntary functions having to do with the cardiovascular, digestive, reproductive and respiratory systems of the body. It is sub-divided into the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. The origin of the term ‘autonomic nervous system’ is credited to John Newport Langley (1852-1925) who coined it in 1898 …
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Autoregressive series/model
Auto-regressive models
Anauto-regressive model is an approach to statistical analysis used inlongitudinal research. These models involve regressing an outcome variable ofinterest onto measures of that variable at previous time points. The resultingresidual variance provides an estimate of change in the variable.Auto-regressive models can be used to examine the longitudinal relationshipsbetween variables as well as the rank-order stability …
Autobiographical memory
Succinctly defined, it is memory for events and issues related to oneself that includes memories for specific experiences and memory for the personal facts of one’s life (e.g., remembering buying your first house). Accordingly, we remember more about events occurring at particular periods in time that define us individuals. What is involved in this type …
Auto-encoder networks
Connectionist models in which the input is the same as the target. These models have to learn to reproduce the input on the output layer. Often an intermediate layer has fewer processing units than either input and output layers and so forms a bottleneck. In order to learn the task, the model therefore needs to …
Autism
A neurodevelopmental condition nowadays conceptualized as a spectrum, involving difficulties in social development, verbal and non-verbal communication, absence of imaginative play, and a focus on unusually strong and narrow interests. In classic autism, about half of all afflicted individuals are mute or speak intelligibly only once or twice in their lifetimes, and about 80 percent …
Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS)
Used to assess autistic symptoms and diagnose autism, as well as other pervasive developmental disorders. It consists of four modules administered in a series of semi-structured tasks involving social interaction between examiner and subject, and designed to be appropriate for differing developmental and language levels. It has been validated forindividuals from early childhood to adulthood.y. …
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Auditory rote memory
The ability to hear something and remember it verbatim. Individuals with autism typically have excellent auditory (and visual) rote memory. See Autism, Memory
Attrition
Drop-out or loss to follow-up of participants in a study because of refusal to continue, failure to locate, or other problems. The concern is that non-random drop-out may make the sample no longer representative of the original population. In studies concerned with evaluating the effects of a particular treatment, attrition can be a major problem. The …
Auditory (or acoustic) nerve
The set of neural pathways that communicates between the cochlea and the cochlear nucleus in the medulla oblongata of the brain stem. Also known as the (vestibulo)cochlear nerve, it is in fact either pair of the eighth cranial nerve that supplies the organs of hearing (via the cochlear nerve) and balance (via the vestibular nerve) …