thalamic pacemaker

a group of nuclei in the thalamus that trigger waves of electrical activity in the cerebral cortex. Several thalamic nuclei have been found to initiate cortical discharges, including the intralaminar, midline, reticular, and ventralis anterior nuclei. Pacemaker neurons in the reticular nucleus excite cortical cells to fire synchronously in the pattern of slow-wave sleep.

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Psychology term of the day

October 9th 2024

spectator effect

the effect on performance when a task is carried out in the presence of others. When an individual is confident of being able to perform the task (i.e., has high task confidence), spectators improve performance; when task confidence is low, they worsen it.