F

Feature detectors

Neurons that respond to specific features of the environment

Features

Characteristics of  a category that are both necessary and sufficient for membership in that category

Feral

Wild, untamed

Finite-state machine

A computing machine that, by means of a finite number of symbols, instructions, and states of memory, performs a sequence of steps to achieve its results. It is at any moment during its functioning in one of a finite set of states in which part of the computation has been performed and the results stored

First-language acquisition

The learning of one’s first language(s), beginning in infancy

First-language attrition

The loss of an individual’s native language

Fluent aphasia

See Wernicke’s aphasia

Fluoroscope

A machine making use of X rays to register on a fluorescent screen the image of a portion of the  body

Frame

An invariant background situation stored as a complex whole, leaving only the details of a specific instance to be filled in

Frontal lobe

The largest of the four lobes of the cerebrum, situated under the frontal bone, or forehead. It plays an important role in planning and decision making

Frontal sulcus

A groove between the frontal lobes of the brain resulting from the folding the cortex

Functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI )

A technique used to image the brain, in which MRI scanners detect the changes occuring in the magnetic state of the blood, which depend on the amount of oxygen in the blood flowing to activated tissues of the brain