Brain Injury Terms and Definitions

NBDPN
National Birth Defects Prevention Network

CBDRP
Centers for Birth Defects Research & Prevention

enkephalins
(en-KEF-uh-lins). Naturally occurring molecules in the brain. Enkephalins attach to special receptors in the brain and spinal cord to inhibit pain messages. They also affect other functions within the brain and nervous system.

Ear Birth Defect
Anotia/microtia

vascular dementia
A common form of dementia that results either from narrowing and blockage of the arteries that supply blood to the brain or by strokes that cause an interruption of blood flow within the brain.

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.

NBDPS
National Birth Defects Prevention Study

Cardiovascular Birth Defect
Conotruncal heart defects, septal heart defects, obstructive heart defects, atrioventricular septal defects, single ventricle, anomalous pulmonary venous return, heterotaxy, Ebstein malformation.

Bell's palsy
A weakness or paralysis of the muscles that control expression on one side of the face because of damage to a facial nerve.

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.