grandmother cell
n.— «The brain would contain a separate neuron to recognize each and every object in the world. Neurobiologist Jerome Lettvin coined the term “grandmother cell” to parody this view, as it would mean that the brain contains a specific cell to recognize one’s own grandmother.» —“Jennifer Aniston strikes a nerve” by Roxanne Khamsi Nature.com June 22, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Rose in Lebanon, Virginia recalls a phrase passed down from her great-grandmother: The night before the first day of school, parents would come into the children’s bedroom and say in a singsong voice: School butter, school butter. This...