grandmother cell n. a neuron that is said to fire when a person recognizes a single individual. Editorial Note: This term is directly tied to a theory of neurology which posits that individual brain cells contain individual memories, as opposed to each memory being stored across a matrix of cells. Etymological Note: Jerome Lettvin is often credit with coining this term, but that has not been verified. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Gay in Tucson, Arizona, remembers her grandmother inviting guests in with take off your cape and fascinator and have a seat. Originally, a fascinator was a kind of scarf that held one’s hair in place and added an air of mystery, and thus...