Intracranial Pressure

Understanding Coma

Rancho Los Amigos Scale/ The Levels of Coma

Objectives of Neurosurgery

A Guide to Brain Anatomy

Vegetative State - Return of wakefulness but not accompanied by cognitive function; eyes open to verbal stimuli; does not localize motor responses; autonomic functions preserved. Sleep-wake cycles exist. See Persistent Vegetative State. (note: the term Vegetative State is currently under scrutiny in order to replace it with a more appropriate term.) [Click Here To Return To List]

Ventricles, Brain - Four natural cavities in the brain which are filled with cerebrospinal fluid. The outline of one or more of these cavities may change when a space-occupying lesion (hemorrhage, tumor) has developed in a lobe of the brain. [Click Here To Return To List]

Ventriculostomy - A procedure for measuring intracranial pressure by placing a measuring device within one of the fluid-filled, hollow chambers of the brain. [Click Here To Return To List]

Verbal Ability - Composed of verbal understanding and verbal fluency. Verbal understanding is the ability of an individual to understand the subtleties and meaning of words. Verbal fluency is the ability to imagine, process and say words without associating them with any particular object. Also the ability to communicate by talking, writing, listening and reading. [Click Here To Return To List]

Verbal Apraxia - Impaired control of proper sequencing of muscles used in speech (tongue, lips, jaw muscles, vocal cords). These muscles are not weak but their control is defective. Speech is labored and characterized by sound reversals, additions and word approximations. [Click Here To Return To List]

Verbal Fluency - The ability to produce words. [Click Here To Return To List]

Verbal Request - Asking a person for a specified response. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vestibular - Pertaining to the vestibular system in the middle ear and the brain which senses movements of the head. Disorders of the vestibular system can lead to dizziness, poor regulation of postural muscle tone and inability to detect quick movements of the head. [Click Here To Return To List]

Visual Field Defect - Inability to see objects located in a specific region of the field of view ordinarily received by each eye. Often the blind region includes everything in the right half or left half of the visual field. [Click Here To Return To List]

Visual Imagery - The use of mental pictures to aid in recall. [Click Here To Return To List]

Visual Perception - The ability to recognize and discriminate between visual stimuli and to interpret these stimuli through association with earlier experiences. For example, to separate a figure from a background, to synthesize the contents of a picture and to interpret the invariability of an object which is seen from different directions. [Click Here To Return To List]

Visually-Impaired - Generic term preferred by some individuals to refer to all degrees of vision loss. [Click Here To Return To List]

Visually-Impaired Program - A service offered by a program to deal with an individual who is blind. The blindness may have occurred prior to a brain injury or as a result of a brain injury. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocation - A summons or strong indication to a particular state or course of action grounded in interest, ability, need, and opportunities; the work in which a person is regularly employed. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Adjustment Center - A rehabilitation facility that is to facilitate the transition to employment of vocationally disadvantaged persons who experience emotional, physical or social disability. Its vocational treatment goals may be an improvement in:

1.) the capacity to function productively,

2.) the ability to secure appropriate employment, or

3.) the capacity to adapt on the job.

These changes may be accomplished by increasing psychological work capacity, by modifying a client's vocational pattern to conform to the stereotype of a good worker (the work personality), or by developing personality characteristics which are needed to adjust to the requirements of the job. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Counseling - Process of assisting a person to understand vocational liabilities and assets, provide occupational information to assist one in choosing an occupation suitable to one's interests and liabilities. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Counselor - One who advises a client regarding vocational options. See Rehabilitation Counselor. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Education - Courses of study, under supervision and control, which lead to proficiency in specific trades or business occupations. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Evaluation - A comprehensive process that systematically utilizes work, real or simulated, as the focal point for assessment and vocational exploration, the purpose of which is to assist individuals in vocational development. Vocational evaluation incorporates medical, psychological, social, vocational, educational,cultural and economic data in the attainment of the goals of the evaluation process. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Evaluation Department - A program organized to provide vocational evaluation services as established by standards. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Evaluation Program Manager (Case Manager) - The professional responsible for the entire evaluation program of an individual client. This includes reviewing all referral information, orientation of the client, scheduling services, planning the individual program, maintaining integration and coordination in his or her program, maintaining a written case record, holding formal and informal conferences as appropriate, making the termination decision, preparing the final report and follow up. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Evaluation Services - Those services provided to accomplish vocational evaluation according to established standards. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Evaluation Unit (Department) - Is the staff, plant, and equipment necessary to carry out a vocational evaluation program. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Evaluator - The individual staff member responsible for carrying out a vocational evaluation. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Objective - A specific, job-related, time-oriented statement which is set forth at the beginning of, and may be modified during, the client's rehabilitation program. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Rehabilitation Process - Providing, in a coordinated manner, those services deemed appropriate to the needs of a person with a disability, and designed to achieve objectives directed toward the realization of the individual's maximum physical, social, mental and vocational potential. [Click Here To Return To List]

Vocational Training - The learning and acquisition of skills or competencies whose ultimate objective is the preparation of students for employment. [Click Here To Return To List]

Voluntary or Volitional Movement - Refers to movement purposefully made by the person. [Click Here To Return To List]

Volunteer - Individual who freely contributes time and talents to an agency engaged in providing services to people, without remuneration (pay) commensurate with the value of services rendered by the volunteer. [Click Here To Return To List]