Balance - The ability to use appropriate righting and equilibrium reactions to maintain an upright position. It is usually tested in sitting and standing positions. [Click Here to Return to List]

Behavior - The total collection of actions and reactions exhibited by a person. [Click Here to Return to List]

Benefits - See Terms and Definitions Related to Insurance. [Click Here to Return to List]

Behavior Disorder - Pattern of behavior. [Click Here to Return to List]

Bilateral - Pertaining to both right and left sides. [Click Here to Return to List]

Biofeedback - A process in which information not ordinarily perceived (such as heart rate, skin temperature or electrical activity of muscles) is recorded from a person and then relayed back instantaneously as a signal so that the individual becomes aware of any alteration in the recorded activity. [Click Here to Return to List]

Blind - Describes a condition in which a person has lost vision for ordinary life purposes. Generally, anyone with less than 10% of normal vision would be regarded as legally blind. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Death - A state in which all functions of the brain (cortical, subcortical, and brain stem) are permanently lost. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Injury - Damage to the brain that results in impairments in one or more functions, including: arousal, attention, language, memory, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment, problem-solving, sensory abilities, perceptual abilities, motor abilities, psychosocial behavior, information processing and speech. The damage may be caused by external physical force, insufficient blood supply, toxic substances, malignancy, disease-producing organisms, congenital disorders, birth trauma or degenerative processes. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Injury, Acquired - The implication of this term is that the individual experienced normal growth and development from conception to birth, until sustaining an insult to the brain at some later time which resulted in impairment of brain function. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Injury, Closed - Occurs when the head accelerates and then rapidly decelerates or collides with another object (for example the windshield of a car) and brain tissue is damaged, not by the presence of a foreign object within the brain, but by violent smashing, stretching and twisting of brain tissue. Closed brain injuries typically cause diffuse tissue damage that results in disabilities which are generalized and highly variable. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Injury, Mild - A patient with mild traumatic brain injury is a person who has had a traumatically-induced physiological disruption of brain function, as manifested by at least one of the following: 1) any period of loss of consciousness, 2) any loss of memory for events immediately before or after the accident, 3) any alteration in mental state at the time of the accident (e.g., feeling dazed, disoriented, or confused), 4) focal neurological deficit(s) which may or may not be transient; but where the severity of the injury does not exceed the following: a) loss of consciousness of approximately 30 minutes or less; b) after 30 minutes, an initial Glasgow Coma Scale of 13-15; c) Post Traumatic Amnesia not greater than 24 hours. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Injury, Moderate - A Glasgow Coma Scale score of 9 to 12 during the first 24 hours post injury. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Injury, Penetrating - Occurs when an object (for example a bullet or an ice pick) fractures the skull, enters the brain and rips the soft brain tissue in its path. Penetrating injuries tend to damage relatively localized ares of the brain which result in fairly discrete and predictable disabilities. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Injury, Severe - Severe injury is one that produces at least 6 hours of coma; Glasgow Coma Scale of 8 or less within the first 24 hours. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Injury, Traumatic - Damage to living brain tissue caused by an external mechanical force. It is usually characterized by a period of altered consciousness ( amnesia or coma) that can be very brief (minutes) or very long (months/indefinitely). The specific disabling condition(s) may be orthopedic, visual, aural, neurologic, perceptive/cognitive, or mental/emotional in nature. The term does not include brain injuries that are caused by insufficient blood supply, toxic substances, malignancy, disease-producing organisms, congenital disorders, birth trauma or degenerative processes. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Plasticity - The ability of intact brain cells to take over functions of damaged cells; plasticity diminishes with maturation. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Scan - An imaging technique in which a radioactive dye (radionucleide) is injected into the bloodstream and then pictures of the brain are taken to detect tumors, hemorrhages, blood clots, abscesses or abnormal anatomy. [Click Here to Return to List]

Brain Stem - The lower extension of the brain where it connects to the spinal cord. Neurological functions located in the brain stem include those necessary for survival (breathing, heart rate) and for arousal (being awake and alert). [Click Here to Return to List]